By any conservative estimate, taxpayers have afforded Republicans $100,000,000 to investigate Hillary and Bill Clinton. No money has been spent to prosecute them because no criminal evidence has been produced. Now, Republicans vow to continue to investigate Mrs. Clinton’s email scandal for at least the next two years. Do you, as a taxpayer, want to spend another $100,000,000 to “lock her up?” If you’re a Republican, is this the main work we can expect your party to do over the next four or eight years? Frankly, I’d rather see some bridges built, or some work done on our loophole ridden tax code.
What’s different about this election is that we, and our political representatives, seem to have forgotten that democracy only works when there is a spirit of compromise in the pursuit of legislative goals that are crafted by a shared commitment to the greatest good. We’ve mistaken campaigning for governing, and our representatives have turned the legislative process into a zero sum game on behalf of any special interest that helps them win a short-term gain.
Special interests are “special” because they invest hard cash for the right to take no responsibility for what happens when they exercise those bought and paid for rights. Examples of “special” are seen on both sides of the aisle. Charles Schumer (D-NY), the probable next Senate Majority Leader, is a long-time advocate for the carried interest loophole – which benefits Wall Street hedge fund executives – and hardly anyone else. And who but the gun lobby ever imagined that the 2nd Amendment protects the right of your schizoid neighbor to buy an automatic weapon at a flea market – and exempts him from carrying liability insurance on that weapon?
Rights without responsibilities is talking without listening, believing without thinking, or judging without evidence or mercy. Adding $100,000,000 – or a dime – to any interest, cause, or idea that is absent these logic and morality based partnerships destroys democracy. Today’s claimants to rights refuse to understand that discomfort, suffering, and losing are constituent parts of responsibility. If they feel any of these symptoms it must be because the system is rigged and the world is out to get them.