HAVE WE LOST OUR MINDS OR JUST SOLD OUT?

The political pundits say that the mother’s milk of politics is money, and it is your Commander’s opinion that the massive amounts of money flowing into the coffers of politicians on the Federal, State, and local level is simply destroying our democratic form of governance. PAY FOR PLAY is a term that has become popular with the trials and tribulations of ex-Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich, but it actually defines the basic problem confronting government at all levels of the American society today.

In South Bend, IN (the community next door) the local Mayoral election is taking place. The top four candidates have raised amazing amounts of money for their Primary Campaigns. One young candidate has raised over $250,000 dollars, and three others have raised about $100,000 each – and we are talking about a mid-size Indiana City.

Our President is off flying all over the country while Rome burns during the two-week Congressional recess, and he is expected to raise over $1 billion for his forthcoming Presidential re-election campaign. This situation is repeated all over the country with each person running for Senate and House seats that require their solicitation of huge sums of money to pay their promotional expenses, which in the long-run really represent the cost of attaining the desired office.

Let me draw your attention to an extremely informative article that recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The article is interesting from the stand-point that the big Wall Street Hedge Fund Managers are switching their bets when it comes to buying their influence in the next Presidential election.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703461504576231121265117538.html#printMode

The thing that jumped off the page at me when reading this article was the astounding amounts of money pumped into these political contests. Please don’t tell me that when a politician receives huge individual contributions such as reported, that it does not buy not only direct contact, but support of the contributor’s special interests. Here we go again with PAY FOR PLAY, and it has totally corrupted the political process in this country.

How can our political leaders criticize political corruption and malfeasance in governments of other countries when it is rampant here in the good old USA?

More than a half million dollars is flooding into the Mayor’s race in little old South Bend, Indiana, and we know that our current President will raise over $1 Billion for his next race. Apparently the political offices have become so lucrative that those running for office are eager to pay almost any amount of money to PAY FOR PLAY, because the pay-off apparently is making it a good business deal for them….not the American taxpayer. We are coming out on the short-end of another sharp stick that is poking at our eyes more and more each passing day.

Have we lost our collective minds or have we just sold-out for whatever handout we can collect from these public servants and duplicitous politicians?

COMMANDER GRANGER