Please don't vote for Mitt Romney.

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I find Gingrich to be unprincipled on some important matters but I guess I'll vote for him if it's a choice of him or what we have now.
Again, the lesser of two evils..........

Kraichgauer wrote:

OK, here it goes (and I must warn you, I have the gift of inducing severe, almost catatonic boredom when I discuss politics). I believe our problem is not too much or too little government but a government that has largely been co-opted by a legal form of corruption. The general population is largely an afterthought these days in Washington and in the state capitals. Instead, lobbyists for powerful interests largely control the government, from influencing votes to handing out talking points to frequently crafting the legislation itself. This is an utter perversion of the representative democratic process, and we as voters have nobody to blame for it but ourselves.

Take the healthcare legislation - few would argue that changes are desperately needed. Some would call for less regulation and more free market competition. Others would prefer a government or non-profit solution. But what we got instead was a legislative process and a public drama crafted entirely by the healthcare industry, especially the pharmaceutical companies and the health insurance lobbying group, AHIP. As former CIGNA head of communications turned whistle-blower Wendell Potter revealed, many public pronouncements on the legislation from Republican and "Blue-Dog" Democrats were verbatim recitations of talking points given to them by AHIP.

But it gets worse: Blue Dog Senator Max Baucus was the man that spearheaded the entire legislative process in the Senate as chairman of the Finance Committee. Baucus' former chief of staff is now the head of the lobbying firm representing AHIP. And his' chief of staff before that? Well, he's now head lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry. And this is the lead DEMOCRAT on the committee that largely crafted the bill. Same guy that took $4 million in campaign finds from the healthcare industry. And the same guy that blocked a single payer plan from even being discussed in committee.

So basically the healthcare industry not only controlled the crafting of the legislation but also fed talking points to both Democrats and Republicans, effectively crafting a mock drama for public consumption, with the Dems proposing a weakened legislation filled with billions upon billions in handouts for the industry while including only modest price controls at best, while the Republicans, following their lines from the same industry-crafted script, claimed that the legislation represented "European-style socialist medicine". It didn't seem to matter that this description in no way described the actual bill. What mattered is that there was a public perception of conflict between "right" and "left". The ultimate goal of the healthcare industry was to block any meaningful cost reductions that might cut into their bottom line, and, if possible, to use the legislation to enhance their revenue streams. No great surprise, they got exactly what they wanted. After all, they controlled the entire process. There was no role for political "philosophy" in the process - it was all about getting money for the industry and more campaign funds for the legislators.

And that's basically how things work in Washington these days. Lobbyists for major industries and interest groups largely get their way while the public is fed simplistic stories about "hyper-partisianship" and big vs. small government "philosophies". And like I said, we the voters are to blame - corporations do what they were created to do (and are legally mandated to do), namely find ways to make more money. It should come as no surprise that if a piece of legislation like the healthcare bill can potentially make them billions, and they can legally hijack the legislative process for just millions, they are going to do so. As citizens, I think it's a shame our attention is so easily diverted by tawdry and simplistic political theater that has so obviously been crafted for our consumption.

Kraichgauer wrote: