Politician have always sold out for money. As Rod Blagojevich defends his deplorable actions as governor of Illinois on the witness stand in his trial, nothing in Illinois has changed.
The Chicago Tribune printed a story on Memorial Day about Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan raking in $600,000 at the 30th annual Island Bay Yacht Club fundraiser. Get this, Madigan, defender of the poor and downtrodden, has his fundraiser at the Yacht Club. Seems somewhat incongruous. None of the poor and downtrodden were present.
But, they were represented by the Laborers’ International Union, a group that donated $25,000. Gee, with so many of their members out of work, and out for years, wouldn’t those dues be better served by helping them get through these tough times? What did they hope to buy for $25,000?
This is just a microcosm of why we are in such trouble as a country.
Think about this. It is reported that 1.4% of the American public is gay. But, you can’t read a paper or watch a news report without seeing a gay rights issue discussed.
Arguably, a smaller percentage than that comprises over-zealous environmentalists. Yet, they keep the country from developing domestic energy sources and drive up the cost of your energy, close down factories, coal mines, and power plants. They tie up permits indefinitely.
Labor union population, pubic and private, is a small percentage of the US population. Still, they own Obama and the democratic party. They can stop Boeing from building a new plant in North Carolina with help from the Labor Relations Board.
Worse, they have pushed politicians to give more and more to public union employees. So much that cities and states can’t pay the bills any longer.
All of this argues for term limits. But, no politician is beating that drum.
This is the real threat to this country today. The majority of Americans don’t choose to spend their disposable income to pay politicians for political favors. We assume our tax dollars that pay their salaries should be enough. It isn’t enough. It’s a pay to play country.
You see the salaries we pay them isn’t enough. It isn’t enough to get them reelected. They need more and they can only get that from the pay to play groups. And, like Blago, they want to retire with a few million in the old campaign fund to use for personal expense in the golden years.
Even the threat of jail time doesn’t work. Look at our boy Blago. He watched his predecessor George Ryan go to prison and it didn’t’ deter him one iota from trying to steal as much as he could as governor.
No doubt this has always gone on in this country. But, the stakes keep getting higher. Now, the future of the country is on the line. The future of Illinois is over. Madigan, the real governor of Illinois has seen to that. The price of his little fund raisers has been the bankruptcy of the state. The price at the Washington level will be the same for the country.
Look at how the AARP sold out the very people they depend on for survival. Supported ObamaCare to fatten their little insurance nests.
Two things count. Big mouths and big wallets. Special interest groups have both. The rest of us choose not to play their game. But, we may have to get in the game. The Tea Party showed us how to bulldoze them in the fall election.
The majority of Americans want what’s best for America. Not what’s best for labor, insane environmental conduct, job eradication, and spending until we are broke. Still our president goes around the world and the country writing checks we can’t cash. Money to Egypt, money to the G-8 to fund the Arab Spring, money to the IMF to keep Greece, which is what he is trying to make us into, whole. Then, to Joplin, Missouri, to tell them “your country is standing with you.” Of all the checks he wrote last week, that might be the only one that makes sense. But, the people of Joplin, unlike the people of New Orleans, seem to be getting about the business of restoring their lives without expecting anything from Obama. They seem to know that Egypt will get theirs before Joplin gets help.
To play in the game, one needs to understand the game. The game today is simple. If you want a politician to do something you need to pay that politician to do what you want. To beat the game, we need to put out of office every politician playing that game. We, the non-payers far outnumber the payers. We just need to be realistic. We need to see through the smoke and mirrors and see who is playing the game and who isn’t. Mark the payees and vote them out.
