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America's corrupt system of private financing of elections.


Republicans opened Pandora's box on all three and looked at what's become of them. Lapdogs and hypocrites.

Honor and integrity are for losers. So says Trump. Donald Trump was politically brave and dared to attack the establishment of both mainstream political parties and got elected as the President. The question is whether the country benefited from it. Heroes may prove to have feet of clay, and admirers will turn away or have pity on them. In the case of Trump, politicians with no morals and "regular people" who need power and vengeance for the injustices in their lives will never turn away from their angry avatar. He has become their prosthetic self-esteem.

Justice Louis Brandeis believed "civic courage" was the "paramount virtue" in a democracy, an idea he expressed in his Whitney v. California opinion--and an idea of profound importance to First Amendment and democratic theory. Liz Cheney is showing what it means to have civic courage, to be politically brave. This quality is at the heart of many SCOTUS First Amendment cases and the founders' vision of our democratic experiment. Vincent Blasi's 1988 law review article is worth a read to understand the constitutional and democratic principles and history at play. Why are politicians, cowards? The answer is simple, I think. Money. Money drives the industry of politics. It's legalized prostitution, and prostitutes do what their johns want.

If only it was that simple for the Republicans. Their bravery needs to be physical. And mental. And it has to extend to their families. "There are few incentives for politicians to exhibit bravery today."Unfortunately, especially with the MAGA crowd, the problem is the abject lack of bravery, The MAGA cult, and its leader have no bravery to exhibit; just bluster. Also, unfortunately, we forget the dictum: "I don't care what you say about me, as long as you spell my name correctly". We should stop naming trump.Because Trump has amassed a mob that will now attack anyone he chooses. They'll go after you, and your family, and you won't know how far they will take it. They'll publish your home address. Your kids' names and the schools they attend. And on the far end of the crazy spectrum are people with guns, and they think Trump is sent from God. All you so-called "Christians," if you believe in the anti-Christ, I think you've found him.

The modern GOP walks hand in hand with the radical theological agenda of the religious right who choose faith over facts and belief in unseen fantasy over everyday reality. It's therefore not really much more of a leap for them to fall hook, line, and sink to the unprovable and invented conspiracies of Trump and soap box profiteers peddlers of white nationalism.The modern GOP voter effortlessly echoes Trump's lies as if they are in church and responding affirmatively to whatever their pastor pontificates.Without sufficient working knowledge of American history, basic civics, governmental policy, and the realities of governing a diverse and spread-out nation of over 350 million they end up herded like cattle into identity pens to be released by Trump to trample over anything that stands in his way of power. If people remain uneducated and happily uninformed, barricading themselves in faith-based Christian ideologies it's only a question of time before Trump or some other Trump-alike autocrat takes over and ends the democratic experiment for good. It's sad, depressing, and dangerous to see Trump and his religious right minions crush the unique light that America stood for and once offered to the world.

"The structural flaws in America's political system lessen the incentive to be brave."The flaws lessen the incentive to do the right thing. If there is little such incentive--that's why it's called "brave." The flaw in the democratic system today is that an astonishingly large number of American voters do not actually believe in, or are cognizant of, modern Western liberal democratic principles: majority rule, the right to vote, respecting election results, rule of law, separation of powers, equality, and civil rights. These Americans believe more in winning at all costs, even if that means rejecting a liberal democratic system, for an illiberal authoritarian one. There you have it.Nearly half the country is led by a corrupt, conniving, bloated child. And instead of being shunned, Trump is idolized and revered -- a role model of emotional dysfunction -- by a new lineup of pathetic bullies and hypocritical liars. But I think it's too narrow a view to simply point at these spineless lawyers/politicians. One must take a wider view of society. Why are Americans becoming such easily-duped simpletons? Why are Americans cheering for the narrowest minds? Why have Americans become so well-trained but so utterly uneducated and provincial? Bravery depends on who is defining it,I guess.In an institutional democracy, it is often the case that political bravery likely morphs into politicized bravery. It is better to have elected leaders meek in front of the constitutional process, a system of checks and balances, and consultative mechanisms that are designed to produce optimal policy. It is highly likely that political bravery can become a slippery slope toward dictatorship. But consider what no MSM voice ever targets in any such admirations of political courage: namely the heavy hand favoring conformity, dis-courage, and complicity that results from our (as Everybody Knows) corrupt system of private financing of elections.

Take one poignant recent example of the whole sad, sick electoral process that will ultimately be the death of democracy: Rep. Andy Levin, a valiant (all the more for being Jewish and actively so) voice for his advocacy of the rights of Palestinians for equality alongside Israelis with a two-state solution. Without a campaign system that allowed AIPAC, in its rigid defiance of any such bravery to resist rewarding Israel's nearly genocidal approach to human rights, to bombard Rep. Levin (as they did also to Donna Edwards in MD and others who dare support a two-state solution) with attack ads to the tune of millions of dollars, would these brave voices have been so effectively demonized and defeated? Big Pharma is now doing the same to those like Sen. Mark Kelly who took brave votes to allow negotiated drug costs. Dark money including GOP billionaires' masked money out to sabotage Democrats' primaries – without even the transparency of Democrats' ads trying to influence GOP primaries – is Exhibit A of why Americans should be demanding public funding of campaigns. Because everything is about money, and we don't punish candidates running inane expensive TV attack ads, politicians need lots of money and cannot afford to govern on the basis of ideas, principles, and morality. They are beholden to the money interests and do anything to get it. Until this changes or the people force a change by not supporting those who spend the most, this will just continue.Private funding is at odds with bravery and democracy.
One can't point to the singular cause why people no longer embrace the greater good and stand up for ideals, but you can identify the influencing factors.Let's start with Citizens United and The Supreme Court.Then let's turn to the unfettered flow of disinformation available on multiple social media platforms and some TV Networks.Next, we might point out that less than 1% of our youth serve the country in the Armed Services or any form of National Service. We have a major political party that for several years has not presented a policy position or 'platform', leaving it open to embrace whatever their 'Dear Leader' designates as the current priority.Then Americans have both corporations and the super wealthy invoking a myriad of schemes to pay literally 'zero' taxes to a country that has enabled their success. A culture that values winning and being right more than being kind and lifting up the less fortunate is essentially the by-product of all this. America needs to take a long collective look in the mirror.

Power is both seductive and corrosive at the same time. Once one has a taste of it, it's hard to forgo.Cheney and Trump both tasted power...one a scion of a Wyoming family political dynasty...the other reached the very pinnacle of power, the Oval Office. One spoke truth to power in order to save the republic. The other was willing to destroy the very country he claims to love, in order to stay in power. Willing to get in bed with white supremacists to foreign actors to achieve power by any means possible. Even stoke his base to overturn a duly elected federal government on Jan. 6, 2021.Liz Cheney understands this one basic principle of power, it's temporary and you cannot take it with you.While I admire her for speaking the truth and standing up for constitutional principles, I would hardly call retiring to a life of luxury with good health insurance, etc., some dread fate.The word "bravery" does not seem to be the exact term needed.I would call her principled. But saying things like she's being brave in the face of "losing everything" seems hyperbole to me.

Trump’s defamatory, outlandish, and obscene campaign attack on John McCain, that he was a “loser” because he was captured by North Vietnamese forces, was for many a “canary in the coal mine “ moment. It fully revealed the complete moral bankruptcy of the Republican Party as its leadership and membership largely chose to remain silent and not drive such a loose-lipped, human abomination from their midst. Whatever redeeming purposes and values this organization then held have all been going downhill since...to rock bottom at present.

Politics is not science.Politics is religion. Despite the evidence people (still) believe. And the funny part is The Donald could care less about the cross, religion, abortion, or even the party, only his narcissistic self. Let’s stop being disappointed.



Reference

William & Mary Law Review Volume 29 (1987-198

Issue 4 Article, 2 May 1988

The First Amendment and the Ideal of Civic Courage: The
Brandeis Opinion in Whitney v. California