The link down below is to a podcast/mp3 by Dan Carlin. Yes, I know no one will go there, and that’s OK. I wouldn’t either. The thing is over an hour long and only suitable for treadmill listening.
The thing that grabbed me about it is that Carlin embraces my whole outlook on the D vs R phenomenon. He says it so much better than me, but takes us back to 1992, and H. Ross Perot. Agree or disagree with Perot, he did one important thing: He showed the nation that the two parties were really in agreement on virtually every important issue. Campaigns were about silly stuff, because the big issues were already settled.
After 1992, the parties got together and vowed “Never again.” The requirements for entry into presidential debates were made so stiff that no one besides one of the two could ever hope to make it in, and more importantly, were flexible, so that if there was a threat of a third party rising, they could simply raise the bar.
And sure enough, in 1996, Perot didn’t qualify for the debates. No one ever has since. Having a third party shatters illusions.
Carlin made another point that has me scratching my head – can it be so? Here’s a hypothetical: Suppose Max Baucus, who hired Liz Fowler of Wellpoint to write the Health Insurance Company Protection Act (HICPA), aka “Health Care Reform”, owned a bunch of stock in Wellpoint. He would be in an insider’s position on that company, and would be able to buy low and short as he pleased based on his inside information.
That should be illegal. Right? It’s not. According to Carlin, citing a Wall Street Journal article, insider trading is perfectly legal for Congresspeople and Senators. There’s a bill that has languished now for four years to make it illegal.
It’s amazing corruption. It is a fouled, dirty, rotten and contaminated system of government. None can join it without being sullied.
Piece of Mindful 