Riding the Power Train

Some time ago, maybe a year ago, a group 80+ of House “progressives” took a stand on behalf of the American public regarding health care. They said that they would not support any bill that did not contain a public option. Nancy Pelosi laughed out loud at the time – she (supposedly a progressive herself) knew that it was an expression of weakness, that they would be destroyed. The power they were up against was simply too much for them.

The Health Care “Reform” debate has been an impressive demonstration of power. Every one of those progressives caved but one: Dennis Kucinich still stands tall, but alone. Here is something really, really interesting – Marcus Molitas of Daily Kos says that Kucinich – Kucinich!!! is one who is now in need of a primary opponent.*

It is a good time again to examine, if only with a surface glance or two, the nature of power. The fact that 86 “progressives” folded their tents is not just a victory for the insurance companies and the White House – it is a not even just a staggering victory. It is shock and awe.

So let’s examine it further. How does one man get another man to become his servant?

In employment, it’s the paycheck. But the power goes deeper than that – the employee might be burdened by mortgages, kids, student loans and the inability to get health insurance somewhere else. Further, few employees are of such caliber that there is any meaningful competition for their services, so that a mere job-jump is not an option. Even if the employee gets so fed up that he makes that jump, he will face a period of unemployment, and with that will come inability to pay bills, loss of credit standing, debt, loss of social standing. (And, his résumé will be tainted if he is perceived as rebellious.)

So for most people, the power of the boss over the employee is complete and total.

Transfer this relationship to that of the office holder and the (generic) “lobbyist.” The lobbyist needs leverage. Where does he find it?

Money is part of it, and is a two-edged sword. Money given to an office holder is useful – he can use it to buy TV ads and get reelected. TV is the only pathway to the voter, who is generally not paying attention. But it is more than that, as the office holder must assume that any money he does not take will go to an opponent. So the power of money is magnified by the ability of the lobbyist to leverage it by offering it to an opponent too.

If it were only money, we would not be in such trouble, because the “lobbyist” has a weakness. He is up against other lobbyists, and while there is seldom significant differences on large objectives – wars, subsidies, tax breaks and the like, there can be competing objectives, so that the office holder can at times leverage one lobbyist against another.

So the lobbyist needs more than just money, though money is powerful and mostly legal. There are other legal ways of making the office holder behave.

One is the fact that most of our “mainstream” media is in fact owned and controlled by the elite moneyed sectors who hire the lobbyists. Office holders need access to this media to be considered credible. Bad actors like Kucinich or Bernie Sanders will never appear on a Sunday talk show. It is well-understood among office holders that a stint on Democracy Now!, the only true news show around, will not cement voter approval – and might even stigmatize them.

So lobbyists have further control over office holders by controlling, in a general sense (there is no one lever to pull, no one lever-puller), access to favorable media. Further, negative press is a weapon – if an office holder stumbles over his words and accidentally says something that is true, or gets a DUI, becomes confrontational or gets out of line, negative editorials will appear in his home district, footage might leak to YouTube – it is somewhat disheveled and disorganized, but office holders have to be careful never to say anything in affront to lobbyists for fear of bad PR.

But even that is not enough. There are yet other legal ways of controlling the office holder. There is so much money floating around this country and in DC that an office holder of low scruples can avail himself of it in many ways. He can accept lucrative employment after leaving office, as, for instance, former South Dakota senate minority leader Tom Daschle becoming a health insurance lobbyist. (Chris Dodd will be interesting to watch – even after announcing his resignation, he is still working on behalf of Wall Street lobbyists. Does lucrative employment await?)

There are also employment opportunities for family members, as with Joe’s son, Beau Biden, working for MNBA back in Delaware, and Evan Bayh’s wife drawing lucrative salaries from health insurance companies … if we had investigative journalists, it would be interesting to do some research on employment of family members in Washington.

In fact, most loyal office holders, even the lowly Conrad Burns, can turn to a career in lobbying after leaving office, and rewards will be there for the rest of their useful lives.

All of that is, unfortunately, legal. But there is yet more. During the Bush years we learned of the prevalence of the wire tap – certainly not new (nor has it been discontinued under Obama). Most members of the media had their phones tapped by NSA or other agencies. The same is most likely true of most members of Congress. If such a weapon were available, and we know it is, how could it not be used?

No matter what it is, whether tryst with a secretary or a drunken party in the Bahamas, somebody in DC knows about it, and such information will be presented to the office holder at some critical juncture.

If only it stopped there. But there is also “sheepdipping”, aka “ABSCAMming”, where an office holder can be made to look guilty or lured into a compromising situation. This happened to Gary Hart, and many years before, Wilbur Mills. John Edwards might be a victim, though he certainly merits no sympathy. Most recently, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, and before him, New York Governor Elliot Spitzer were “exposed.” The question that is not asked is “How many are culpable, but not exposed?”

These men were being watched – people were looking for dirt, and they found it. And even if the dirt does not turn up naturally, it can be planted. Any potential hire for an office holder can present a threat – she could be the next Donna Rice, Monica, or Linda Tripp.

So the control over our elected officials appears almost complete and total. A man has to be pure and innocent to be immune from such pressures. He has to forgo corporate money and lead a squeaky-clean life. Such a man is Bernie Sanders ….. but wait!

Sanders, Vermont’s socialist senator, seems a rogue, a man able to walk about freely and speak his mind. He’s not hobbled by the Democratic Party, and doesn’t take corporate money, so the regular levers don’t work on him. Yet, when the Senate Health “Reform” bill, written by the health insurance lobbyists, needed 60 votes to get out of the senate, he provided the 60th vote.

We had been treated to spectacles before where certain senators like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson used their “60th vote” status to leverage massive changes in the bill, preventing a public option, for instance. Senator Sanders, the 60th vote for that bill, had incredible power to command changes favorable to ordinary citizens.

And he did not do so. He did not use his power, meaning he did not have power.

What’s up with that, Bernie? Skeletons in your closet?
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*This is not hard to understand, on further reflection. Molitas made that statement while be interviewed on a cable news show. He would not have access to such forums if he held unworthy views. He has succumbed, and is probably a passenger on the ego train. He’s apparently been compromised in some fashion.