Punishing the perpetrators
by digby
Can you see what's wrong with this picture? (From Dylan Ratigan's show today)
Jonathan Capehart: This is just one piece, getting the money out of politics, the first step. But ultimately what's going to have to happen, and this is my little drumbeat, is that the American people are going to have to let members of congress go to Washington to make the tough decisions. To make the hard calls that are really going to be uncomfortable, maybe even painful. But then the next step is to not punish them for doing the things you've sent them to Washington to do.
Allow members of congress and members of the Senate to actually be fearless, that's the key. A lot of those people, there are 535 people on Capitol Hill are running in fear.
Imagine that. To think that in a democracy politicians would be afraid to cause the citizens pain and discomfort? What's the world coming to?
This is, of course, a very typical Villager complaint. The "people" are just so stupid and selfish that they won't let the politicians do what's necessary to fix the problems. The "tough issues" we're talking about of course, are cutting the "entitlements" which everyone in DC knows are the cause of all our woes.
It never occurs to Capehart that getting the money out of politics, raising taxes on the 1%, shrinking the empire might make all these painful, uncomfortable decisions unnecessary. Maybe if we did that most Americans could have a little health and retirement security and these politicians wouldn't have to make those "hard calls" in the first place.
That of course, isn't even contemplated. It's just assumed that the American people must bear the burden of all the mistakes and all the waste the wealthy gamblers and their government stooges might make. And when the people express their dismay and vote these so-called leaders out of office they're scolded like children for it.
What a system.
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