Aaw C'mon you guys!

I want to write a little essay, to set beside the hundreds of others, about how the "culture of corruption" is endemic to conservative politics...But oooh noooo,we can't have it that simple! Now we have dems sucking up lobbyist bucks. The Democrats are not exactly "my team". More of my animation as a political animal comes the fascist tendencies of the Republican party, their evil priorties, biggoted backers, transparent hypocrisy and corrupt doings. But let me tell you, I'd vote for McCain if he'd stuck by his campaign finance reform efforts. The guy who stood up to Hanoi's torturing can not stand up to the lure of money...and now we see, neither can some Democrats. Power corrupting? The prospect of rising power attracting influence seekers? It discomforts me.

I share the misgivings of Mr. Singer at myDD and he expresses them better than I could. It is naive to imagine politics can be done without cash for campaign advertising, traveling to the many rallies and other engagements and provisioning of phone and polling operations. And it is equally naive to hope that those who have paid the candidates bills will not have the candidates ear, will not have their wishes well known to the candidate. If there are as many liberal voters, or disgusted Repbulicans as we like to tell ourselves, then the little that we could each give to honest candidates who haven't screwed the country, and have sensible reforms they want to legislate would be enough. Every news source you check will tell you the Republicans are shaking down their donors in desperation. They will spend like crazy to stave off a congress that could mount investigations or impeach. We don't have to match the fat cats, just chip in enough to counter the expensive smears and scare tactics. Voting is not the only important thing I will do. I cracked open my little purse for Senator Bryd, and will do so for a few other candidates who need to put up a few ads. Don't let some industry own your representative or senator. In the present climate, an individual or PAC liberal donation probably enjoys a healthy multiple of effectiveness over the money of an oil or telecommunication or coal company or evangelical churh.

UPDATE: I just saw the TPM and TPMCafe posts on the topic of coughing up some change to make a change. YES, NOW! And my claim that a vote for good new directions won't cost as much as a vote to stay the curse gets some factual support:

Much of what Dean is trying to do through the DNC comprehends how you build an organization like, or similar to the Wellstone Org that afterall knocked off a two term Republican Senator who had Eleven Million to spend, while Wellstone spent totally just a little over a million.

Remember: the question is not "How can we win?" but "What will we let ourselves become in order to win?"