What we should be getting sick of by now.

by Rich Miles

You ever wonder why extreme left-wing pols (like, oh I don't know, Barack Obama among many others) get so squirrely and turn hard-right once they get in office? It happens almost every time, if you wanna take a look back at the last 100 or so years of history. Now why is that, ya reckon? I mean, it isn't as if being right-wing is all that productive a personal philosophy to espouse in the long run. So why is it that so many pols who seem to be lefties aren't so eventually?

Well, I'll tell you - it's because they're bought and paid for by elements of the right - who have more money than God, and can spend it on people who are in a position to make their lives even more comfortable and happy and WEALTHY.

That's it in a nutshell, and if you consider long and hard, or maybe not even so long and hard, you'll see it: all, and I mean ALL of our politicians, and most especially those who campaign as leftwingers, are on the take from rightwing forces beyond our ken and in most cases beyond our control. And until we collectively wake up and cop to this rigged system, and try to do something about it, we're going to continue to see this same system of government in our faces.

You think I exaggerate? You think even the righties in this country couldn't afford to buy that many politicians? Or that there couldn't possibly be that much political will to pay off that many pols, or that there couldn't be that many pols who are that corrupt, that willing to be bought?

Well, you're wrong. On all counts, and probably a few more besides, you're wrong.

Because if you give it a bit of thought, nothing, and I mean NOTHING else makes sense with the set of circumstances under which we live today.

Let me clarify one small point: I am not suggesting that all the left-of-center politicians in this country are literally being bribed with cash in hand. In fact, that particular method of bribery is, while not completely obsolete, probably the least common method.

No, the way most pols are on the take these days is, unfortunately, perfectly legal.

It's called campaign contribution. And it is every bit as much bribery as any bagman-delivered, paper sack full of 100's in the night that any thug ever handed over.

I mean, what else can one call it, when a political boss arranges to deliver 100's of thousands of dollars' worth of cash money to a candidate's campaign, in anticipation that the politician will vote in accordance with the contributor's wante and needs? How is it in any way materially different from bribery, except that it's legal?

And all of our so-called leaders, from the Federal to the hyper-local level, are engaged in the practice, and are proud of it!

So that explains why no one, or nearly no one (Russ Feingold comes to mind, but damn few others) keeps their principles intact beyond the first year or so in office. Especially but not exclusively at the Federal level.

And I'm serious - it's all of them. What we're going to do about it, I cannot say. Just getting rid of them all would create a power vacuum, and might even manage to get rid of a few good ones.

But rid of them is what we need to be. I'm talking about nothing less than an overthrow (a PEACEFUL one) of the entire U.S. government. But if we're going to do it, we'd have to have in place some safeguards to ensure that we wouldn't get another batch of the same bunch of corrupt bastards.

SO what do you make of it? Do you think I'm overstating? I mean, you're wrong, but you're welcome to be so.

We have to do something about this. It'll take a long time to effect it, but we gotta do it. If we don't, we'll live under this yoke forever, as we have so far.