The excerpt below is posted with the full knowledge and permission, even encouragement, of the author, who wants his essays to be read by as many people as possible. From The Hill:
Super-Disaster Tuesday ahead
By Brent Budowsky
It is time to revolt.
Progressives, conservatives, reformers, and all who believe America faces serious challenges that require serious discussion should open their windows, as Howard Beale suggested in the movie “Network,” and say: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
Super-Disaster Tuesday warps our presidential campaign into another travesty of democracy: First, the early stage of the campaign turns presidential candidates into carnival barkers for the obscene amounts of campaign money that now dominate and distort our democracy.
I know countless members of the House and Senate, as well as would-be presidents, who are disgusted with the lifestyle of perpetual fundraising. The American people are appalled by the corrupting power of mass money over a system whose integrity they no longer trust, and whose corruption they will no longer tolerate.
Second, virtually all of these Iraqi-like tons of cash will be dumped into our living rooms, compressed into a period of days, through a massive deluge of television commercials drenched with negativity, character attacks and smears.
Finally, almost any weird, strange, sick, crazy, extreme, unexpected event occurring in the hours before Super-Disaster Tuesday will totally dominate the outcome; and of course there will be no rational process of discussion or response to any such last-minute event…
We now have the near-total domination of money over our democracy, and the near-total domination of television over our politics…
Brent Budowsky is a former aide to U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), then chief deputy whip of the U.S. House. He is a contributing editor to the Fighting Dems News Service and posts regularly The Hill’s Pundits Blog. Brent can be reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.
Click the title of the article, above, to read Brent’s solution to the problem of Super Tuesday. And send a message about this essay to letters@thehill.com. If your letter is good enough to be published, it may be read by your senators and congressman!
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com