Democracy's steroids era, By: John Young
June 22, 2006
It’s endemic of America’s distracted state. Former Sen. George Mitchell, who once chaired a commission on the bloody 2000 Israeli-PLO intifada, now has been summoned to investigate baseball players’ bodily fluids.
The world watches, asterisks at the ready. Nothing, apparently, is as sacrosanct as baseball record books amid the steroid scandal.
Being a baseball fan, sure, I care. But look at other, more pivotal, endeavors where the same dynamics apply. Look at how the people who run our country are being “juiced.”
You could start at Congressman William Jefferson, he who had $90,000 stashed with the fish sticks. The FBI alleges the Louisiana Democrat was being bribed by a Nigerian company seeking influence on Capitol Hill.
Or you could turn to the slimy Jack Abramoff, the jailbird prince of D.C. influence buying, with his White House powwows for Indian chiefs who jingle and jangle.
In many ways, however, focusing on Abramoff is like pondering Barry Bonds’ backside. We’re being distracted. Middle man Abramoff isn’t the issue. The issue is the policy makers on the juice.
Just as an example, and hewing to a pharmacology theme: In 2003 the influence bartered by America’s pharmaceutical companies assured they would write their own note when the White House ramrodded a Medicare prescription drug benefit with no cost controls.
In 2001 it wasn’t Jack Abramoff who bought tickets to the table for industry titans when Dick Cheney devised a national energy plan that only deepens our slavery to carbon. They had season passes.
If you’re concerned that some major leaguers get an unfair advantage at the plate because of a foreign substance, you should wonder about the enormous advantage bequeathed to politicians based on how they can pass the collection plate.
George W. Bush, the history books will say, was the people’s choice in 2000. Yes, the process was extended at the end by a detour through the Supreme Court. But it also was abbreviated at the front end. When Bush got a huge head start en route to breaking all fundraising records for a presidential candidate, he won the equivalent of half a dozen end-of-the-line primaries without opposition. He was able to secure the nomination that early.
Getting elected in modern times isn’t so much about ideas but about cash. Yes, those with the cash are interested in ideas — theirs.
In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election fund just got a big boost from oil and gas interests, including $100,000 from one Houston oilman. Analysts attribute this to a Perry-engineered plan that not only lowers property taxes but lavishes deductions on the oil patch.
That other Perry
Among donors, Perry surely owes the most to Bob Perry (no relation). The Houston homebuilder has given more than $7 million, mostly to Republicans, and over $700,000 to Gov. Perry. Scandalously, Texas has no individual limits on political donations.
One tacit result for Bob Perry is that homebuilders now can deflect liability suits in favor of the Texas Residential Construction Commission, created in 2003. No one should be surprised that Gov. Perry appointed one of Perry Homes’ own executives to the panel.
So, by all means, let’s wring our hands about the steroids era, the artificial advantages people use to get to gain dominance and hold it.
In other news, the U.S. House has killed a defense spending amendment that was aimed at eliminating fraud and “improving competition in contracting.” Said goals surely are worthwhile, unless perceived to be aimed at the Halliburton Corp.
A public advocacy group called Just $6 points out that for that amount — $6 per citizen per year — the nation could have public financing of congressional and presidential elections — fewer means of injecting steroids into our political system. Go to www.just6dollars.org.
We can get outraged over a system that takes the people out of democracy, or we can concentrate on baseball players’ back pimples.
