As much as many consider the failure to end the filibuster in the senate a victory, it feels as a hollow one for me as it also points out how pervasive the lobbyist money is in Washington and that we as people, whether we agree or disagree with our elected representatives can never be confident in them voting their conscience, much less ours.
We complain about how this segment of the government doesn't serve us, that this group is taking advantage of the system, etc. In the meantime, we can never be assured that those in Washington haven't been bought by anyone. The fix? Choke off the money coming in the Washington backdoors and you'll find people representing you who are there to represent, not people representing the highest bidder.
I don't mind dissent, I thrive on it at times, but I don't want to hear that the NRA, the ACLU or anyone else for that matter bought legislators to drive ANY agenda down our throats. If the agenda doesn't stand on its own then maybe it needs to wait or be rejected outright. And every stinking time I hear of legislation that has any contentiousness to it, from the left or the right, I hear about and from lobbyists pushing their agenda. So for those who complain they need to take government back, isn't it time we don't have to worry about who's buying our government?
Wouldn't it be nice that we could be assured that we're really arguing over the role of government or how Washington doesn't get it than whether the Koch brothers and George Soros are placing bets with each other a la Trading Places?
