From Howard Dean’s Blog for America: “I am bowled over by the more than 150,000 people who have donated to my cause. By making an average contribution of $86, those 150,000 people have demonstrated that they have the power to match George W. Bush’s corporate contributors if they come together to create an unstoppable political force. We are changing politics. We are proving that individual people can matter in our democracy again.”
When I picked up my car from having its 22,402-mile oil change earlier this week at 9th Avenue Service Center, the service advisor told me that “Newso somebody” who was running for something had come in and interrupted his phone call to introduce himself and try to get his vote. He told Newsom that he hated politicians and didn’t vote anymore because he no longer believes in the system because the people voted for Gore but Bush is in the White House. Then he asked Newsom why he wanted a job that pays somewhere upwards of $100,000 for 4 years that was going to cost him five or six million dollars to get. He told Newsom that doesn’t make any sense. Newsom explained that other people donate the money. The service advisor said, “Oh really? And what do you give those people in return?” Newsom turned around and left the building.
Let’s separate corporate money from politics. Only then will we have a true democracy that represents the will of the people instead of an old boys club wherein corporations and elected officials are in bed together.