How American Democracy Was Bought… and Sold

Eric Cantor, in the news last week, was the best sort of politician. When he was bought, he stayed bought.

When campaign season came around, the oligarchs wouldn’t forget him. The trouble was, he forgot the poor little ‘garchs’. He was so sure he had the election in the bag, he forgot to lie to the voters.

Some say Goldman Sachs owned him. That is an overstatement; Wall Street only had a leasehold, which expired when his grip on House Republicans gave out.

Besides, most leading industries had a piece of him, too; the defense industry, for example, rented major parts of his heart and brain.

The Death of American Conservatism

Many are the explanations for Cantor’s surprise defeat. We put it down to a failure to run a balanced campaign.

He forgot that political commerce in a modern democracy is a two-way street. You have to buy as well as sell. All very well to offer your services to the 1%. But don’t forget the 99% who will decide an election.

Conservatism in the US took a nasty turn in the 1980s. A generation had grown up since Ike Eisenhower was president. This new generation, much of it slipping into Washington along with Ronald Reagan, had come to see Washington as a force for good in the world — especially outside the fifty states. And even if Washington didn’t always do good, a sharp politician could always do well.

The trick was to talk the old conservative talk for the rubes back home, but to vote for every money-guzzling boondoggle that came along.

Cantor talked the talk too. But it was a mushy talk — full of mindless platitudes and empty phrases.

That would have worked fine had his district been a little farther north. Squeeze up nearer to DC and blah blah is all the voters want to hear. They know how it works.

The nation is tilted towards the Potomac. The money rolls towards its denizens like loose change down a storm drain. The last thing they want is a candidate who speaks clearly about the need to change things.
 

The greatest fix of all time

But poor Mr. Cantor’s district is on the James River, not the Potomac. Around Richmond, voters are less sympathetic to crony democracy.

Read the rest of this article at The Daily Reckoning