This Little Piggy Came to Market
Musings on the various news items today

Our political system is broken. One major accomplishment of the Republican stranglehold on government is the demonstration of just how corrupt and bankrupt it can become. The result is, as the old saying goes, the best government money can buy.

The past five years resemble a great auction for the money to finance legislators’ quest for election and reelection. The highest bidders, of course, are the economic elite. Congress has become a sports arena where winning is everything.

Reelection depends not only on gaining corporate donations but also dispensing porcine largess. Disgusted with Congress, voters who continue to reelect their own representatives for what they can bring the district. Spending is out of control, not because of the money going to antipoverty programs, but instead because every officeholder focuses on his district’s pet projects. Even vitally important national security funds are doled out on the basis of political clout, not actual risk.

Ideally, the president provides the national vision--being the only one elected by the entire country. Unfortunately, Bush’s vision is cronyism with a thin crust of creed. He talks "family values" but his actions indicate an overriding ideal of profit-making. As some one who has never had to work, he views labor as a commodity in the production of dividends. A decent minimum wage is a deterrent to profits, as are capital gains taxes. The only acceptable drain on profits seems to be executive salaries.

People who actually produce a good or service with their own hands are experiencing a totally different economy than the rosy one reflected by stock profits and productivity gains. Until they get fed up and come together on the basis of economic interest, they will continue to be bought off by new bridges to nowhere or prayer in public school amendments. Unless they wake up, voters will continue to finance the high costs of gas, drugs, insurance, etc., out of their pockets, while the oil companies, pharmaceuticals, and insurance industry line theirs.

The media could become the alarm clock. But will they?