Joe Wilson’s outburst last week should have created an opportunity to upgrade our congressional representation in the 2nd District (which is where I live and vote).
Unfortunately, the dynamics of the perpetual partisan shoutfest centered in Washington have utterly precluded that. The fix is in, all we have to look forward to in 2010 is more of the same.
Thanks to the way the partisan spin machines have manipulated this affair (mutually supporting each other in their common cause of constant political conflict), Joe Wilson and Rob Miller have both raised enough money to make each a fait accompli for his respective party’s nomination. This is it, the choices we will get.
The choice will be between Joe Wilson, as reflexive a party follower as you’re likely to find in the GOP, and Rob Miller, who is a nice young man who deserves our deep gratitude for his service as a United States Marine, but (from what I’ve seen so far) is no more capable of expressing independent thought that goes beyond his party’s cliches than Joe is.
Our chance to improve the quality of representation in the 2nd District has been blown away by this hurricane of money — a hurricane driven entirely by the mutually-supporting partisan spin cycles of the two parties, and NOT by the interests of the people of the 2nd District. (It works just like a hurricane, too — first you get furious winds tearing at you from one direction, then after the eye passes and you think it’s over, furious winds tear at you from the opposite direction. But it’s all the same storm.)
If it weren’t for the constant, furious spinning of those machines (which are really one machine ultimately, since neither can “justify” its existence without the other — do you think I’ve made that point in enough parenthetical asides yet?), this past week might have been a time for some thoughtful individuals to step forward and send up test balloons about a possible candidacy. But that won’t happen now, with the way the knee-jerkers on both sides have inflated the campaign warchests of these two.
You know, if I could figure out how to put groceries on the table while doing it (which is sort of my top priority these days), and if I thought there was some possibility of wresting attention away from these well-financed inevitabilities, I would run, win or lose, just so the voters of the 2nd District would have a real choice, one that offers a break from absurdity as usual … But those are two really big ifs.
Meet the new boss; same as the old boss… And make no mistake, we WILL get fooled again.
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By the way, as of my typing this, the Joe Wilson warchest is at $1.7 million and counting, while Rob Miller’s is, I THINK (the site I’m following is a little confusing), at $1.69 million…
I have no reason to believe that these contributions reflect the individual strengths of the respective candidates, but rather are expressions of the partisan passions of the givers. These contributions seem to be ABOUT the spin cycle, not about the candidates. Although I’d be interested in your arguments to the contrary, the very fact that I have to go to a site called “ActBlue” for information on the Miller contributions seems to buttress at least half of my argument rather well…
You nailed it on this one Brad. In this race, it’s going to be a partisan to the left, a partisan to the right.
You should run, Brad. But in honor of your unpartisan spirit I’ll write your name in anyway.
A thinking non-party man who often attempts to see more than one side of an issue and who won’t stoop to the usual bickering — even one with whom I often disagree when it comes to the issues — is more preferable than their two candidates.
Think the parties will take note? Probably not. But I bet they would if more people would vote with me.
Repeat after me: TERM LIMITS
And cut maximum donations to candidates to just $25…
And remove the party affiliation from the ballot so voters would have to know who the candidate is versus whether there is a D or R after his name…
And cut government spending so there is less money for lobbyists to try and grab…
It’s all pretty simple.
But Birch, do you think I could ever get Doug’s vote?
Doug, I’m all for removing party affiliation from the ballot (and I think straight-ticket voting is a profound sin against representative democracy). But how would term limits affect the phenomenon of Rob Miller raising all that money before anyone has had a chance to blink?
We know Barack Obama was lying about “no healthcare for illegal aliens” and “no federal funding for abortions”, because…
There is no protest from the Latino/illegal alien advocacy groups.
There is no protest from the pro-abortion groups, nor from the abortion industry, Planned Parenthood, etc.
The 2nd district will be reliably Republican until the practice of hoarding all possible black votes into the 6th comes to a halt.
Democrats know that enough blacks will vote for the best candidate and not just on race, that their party cannot win many state-wide offices.
The donations to Wilson are mostly from in-state VOTERS.
The donations to Miller are mostly from out-of-state people who despise South Carolina, and are NON-VOTERS.
I get that you don’t like parties Brad, but really, what is wrong with like-minded people forming a group to promote their common interests. That’s what parties are for. I’m sure everyone in congress has their own unique package of ideas that they would like to see enacted. But at the end of the day if there were no parties working toward a common goal nothing would ever get done. Then again, maybe getting nothing done would be a good thing. Perhaps we could have avoided the disasterous restructuring legislation of 1992, the Iraq war debacle and a host of other really bad legislation.
I agree w/ Doug, term limits, term limits, term limits. The 1st step towards true reform. Seems to me campaign donation amounts would not be as relevant since time served would be limited.
I voted for Ron Miller last time and will do so again. Seems to me that if you are part of a team, be it political, corporate(as in McClatchy, Brad), religious, etc you do have to “speak along party lines” sometimes, else you wouldn’t be part of the team. Doesn’t mean you can’t have an independent thought/policy/idea.
And lastly, Lee, where are you getting your donor list(s)? I’d like to look at them, especially to see if the $240,000 donated to Addison G Wilson in the last year by the health care industry has increased.
I get campaign donations from the FEC. Often, someone else beats me to it and helps by digging up particular donations.
I have never looked into any donations to Congressman Wilson. Where do you get the figure of $240,000 from the “healthcare industry”? There is no such entity.
I would expect doctors and nurses to donate more to opponents of socialized medicine. Thousands of insurance company and drug company lobbyists have been actually writing lots of the Democrat bills, to protect their business at the expense of others.
The solution is not to limit donations to $25.00 per person, which only helps incumbents. The solution is to forbid anyone leaving office and becoming a lobbyist for at least five years. Get rid of the corporate and union PACs, and maybe let the grassroots PACs like the NRA, remain.
I am a lot more concerned about the $200,000,000 in illegal contributions to Barack Obama (according to the FEC), than I am about $240,000 from doctors to Joe Wilson.
Well, Lee, if you’ve never looked into Addison’s donations how do you know that most of the Sept donors are instate?
The source for my data is the Center for Responsive Politics and their source is the FEC. The totals I refer to are listed under the “entity” Health and represent donors from the following groups: Health Professionals, Hospitals/Nursing Homes, Pharmaceuticals/Health Products, and Insurance.
I do stand corrected in the $240k amount for 2008-09. It is the total amt donated since 2002 by Health Prof group only and the correct total is $244,196. Since 2008 the Health “entity” donation total is $135k. Their data stops at Aug 23,2009 so the Sept donation madness is not included.
Also, The American Hospital Assc is listed as #1 in their Top 5 Contributor list for 2009 and The Health Prof group is #1 under the Top 5 Industries donation category for 2009.
Still looking for the data on the Sept donation madness.
I am more concerned about Obama cutting a deal with the pharmacy lobbyists than I am about doctors donating to preserve their individual right to earn a living and serve their patients.