Rigging Democracy
Ivins, Molly
Small Favors Molly Ivins Rigging Democracy If you have ever spent enough time around politics to be familiar with the word "process," you know why Democrats in Congress are spitting with fury— and...
...Those who had the wit to recognize the Kennedy-Nixon debates of I960 as a pivotal political moment must be having the same twinges now...
...The New York Times reports the Internet is having an equally democratizing effect on commerce, drawing customers to small specialty stores and away from the Wal-Marts...
...What you get is the immortal Texas response, "No shit...
...In politics, "process" means the rules, the means by which everybody arrives at what everybody agrees to be the best feasible solution...
...This is a different game...
...How delightful...
...To have raised serious political money (so serious that he threw away public financing, damn it) from "the people" rather than large corporate special interests is already in and of itself a revolution...
...It may be too soon to count on the Internet to fix our problems, but these are lovely signs and should be enjoyed by all...
...That's a 97 percent approval rate with the vacancy rate in the federal judiciary the lowest it's been for thirteen years...
...Well, before we all go off into gloom again over this terrible, terrible situation, I'd like to report that things are looking up here and there, and one of the "theres" is the Internet...
...it is the game of democracy...
...Get used to it...
...This is not politics as we know it...
...The rules are not just rigged...
...Sometimes your Ds win, sometimes your Rs, and sometimes there's real compromise...
...I realize this is not breaking news, but we are looking at something exceptional in political history with this race...
...But no one screws with the process because everyone knows that even though you may win this time, you may lose next time, and so you all want the rules to be fair...
...Even the posturing is disproportionate: For the Senate Republicans to stage a forty-hour filibuster because six Bush judicial nominees had been busted was silly beyond description...
...they want to rule...
...There are some seriously stupid people in charge of the country right now...
...As Texas State Senator Gon-zalo Barrientos said of his Republican "colleagues," "These people don't want to govern...
...Happy New Year, progressives...
...It's not just the legislative game that's being rigged...
...The Internet is breaking open old power structures and set ways of doing things...
...Small Favors Molly Ivins Rigging Democracy If you have ever spent enough time around politics to be familiar with the word "process," you know why Democrats in Congress are spitting with fury— and why it is singularly futile for them to do so...
...I've seen one side or the other try to mess with the process over the years—we got the votes, screw you— but only stupid politicians do that...
...The Republicans busted sixty-three of Clinton's nominees, mostly by never even giving them a hearing...
...Molly Ivins, co-author of "Bushwhacked," writes in this space every month...
...At the end of the regular session of the Texas legislature last month, a longtime labor lobbyist said, "I've spent all session trying to figure what these guys' strategy is, and I just now realized they're playing a different game...
...Believe me, you cannot bring citizens to the pitch of fighting indignation by informing them that the Republican leadership held the vote on the Medicare deform bill open for three hours...
...No matter who you're supporting for President, you must admit Howard Dean's campaign is an inspiration...
...the rules don't matter at all...
...Isn't that promising...
...Most campaign consultants have no idea what to do with it or about it...
...One man/one vote is getting a makeover, through artful redistrict-ing, "felon purges" of voting rolls, and Diebold voting machines...
Vol. 68 • January 2004 • No. 1
