Democrats Just Blocked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Push For A Green New Deal Committee

[Hortensis]

185. Why? It's what they get in return that matters.

The vast majority of right-wing corporate contributions to Democrats are made to keep the doors open. Right or wrong (I want giving even a cup of coffee or a plastic pen to be illegal!), courtesy donations to the "other party" are so ubiquitous that no donation at all is a hostile signal.

When I hear groups call for ejecting all Democrats who accept energy (or other) industry money, I immediately distrust their motives. It's possible they're incredibly stupid and ignorant, but far more commonly they're hostiles trying to fool people into giving them power they can't earn honestly.

Because those who want to battle corruption of course focus on what the Republicans are doing to institutionalize corruption, and they of course do it by joining with the good people in and strengthening the immense power for change of the Democratic Party. Because that's the only way it can happen.

Vox: House Democrats’ big democracy reform package is good policy, and smart politics: Rarely does political reform get this kind of top billing.

House Democrats have decided on their priority legislation for the next Congress, and it’s all about improving the quality of American democracy. HR 1, the bill number typically reserved for the House majority party’s most important policy, marks the first time that political reform has been given this kind of top billing.

There’s a lot in the bill, including a number of ethics and disclosure and election security proposals that should be commonsense. But at heart, there are four big-ticket items that would be standalone news on their own: a small-donor matching system for campaign finance, mandatory independent redistricting commissions, automatic voter registration, and felon reenfranchisement. Collectively, this is the most transformative pro-democracy package in decades.

https://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2018/12/10/18134994/house-democrats-democracy-reform-package

How could anyone sincere about reform not be talking about and urging support for this? Small-donor matching! Until we can get Citizens reversed. In 2016 only 4 members of the Democratic Progressive Caucus's 88 members were able to refuse big-donor donations because their districts were too poor to donate what was needed to get elected.

Btw, NEW representatives have not yet demonstrated that they will remain uncorrupted in an environment famous for tempting offers of advancement and fortune. For that, we need records of time in congress. Once in office, there are many who will be happy to help them remain (the usual pro in quid pro quo), while it usually takes at very least several years to identify and get mistakes out. Sometimes decades. And people like these elite positions in DC waayy too much.