Wednesday, November 5, 2014

The Midterms

Years ago, I might have been seriously upset by the outcomes of yesterday's elections.  Now, I don't really care.  Yes, I voted, but I later spent the night watching "Law and Order" reruns rather than election returns.

The problem is that the same crew of billionaire plutocrats — the 0.001 percent — not only get to mightily influence the outcomes of elections, they get to pick the candidates.  Nobody can even think about running for any major office without their financial backing.

According to Lawrence Lessig of Harvard, an ethicist who holds views that span the political spectrum, America has less ability to choose candidates than Hong Kong protesters, who object to a "Committee of 1200" picking their candidates.

It would be nice to get the money out of politics, but it won't happen.  In the USofA, money is politics.

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