Just Another Way To Say Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others
WHY POLITICIANS RUN FOR OFFICE
Just Another Way To Say 'Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others'
HERE'S AN ANIMATED SHORT ABOUT FAT CATS AND THEIR RULE OVER MICE posted on YouTube's ProperTidy channel.
According to ProperTidy, this short was shown at the "Committee for a Workers' International Summer School 2009 as an amusing tool to motivate a renewed fight for "mass workers parties" in Europe.
The film was made by the Canadian New Democratic Party (NDP) and is based on a speech by Tommy Douglas, a NDP founder.
But the short just as easily applies to Washington's political reality where Republicans and Democrats vie over how to spend trillions borrowed from China.
A couple of truisms, at least to my mind: just like fame, the act of winning election is a corrupting influence: once you're in the club the perks multiply and the rules are flouted.
And even though each party claims the mantle of "champion" for common folk, both Democrats and Republicans fall prey to the heady rush of power. In Washington, everyone falls obsequiously at the feet of their most important constituency: the campaign contributor, be it a fat "cat" individual or a deep-pocketed conglomerate.
At this very moment, my sympathies lie with the Democrats. The nation was ravaged by the greed, anti-intellectualism, and manipulation of Republicans during the second Bush Era.
But living in Chicago, the same sins are committed daily by the Democrats in power. The Democratic Mayor Richard Daley is drunk with power and no one seems able or even interested in sending him to rehab.
The list of Daley cronies accused or convicted of lining their pockets is long and would take weeks to compile. But two recent examples: his nephew Robert Vanecko's a $68 million real estate deal with city pension funds is under federal investigation.
And just last week the Chicago Tribune reported that Michael Scott, president of the Chicago Public Schools' board and a Daley appointee to the mayor's Olympic committee, is part of a real estate group planning developments near land earmarked for the city's 2016 Summer Olymics bid.
It's enough to make even blind optimists become cynical. And always whispering in the back of the cynic's mind is that President Barack Obama is a graduate of the Harvard of corrupt politics: the Chicago Machine.
Personally, I'm having a hard time seeing the ripping up and repaving of major intersections all around Chicago -- ostensibly part of the American Reinvestment Act -- as anything more that clout writ large.
I'm losing hope that the politics of self-service will ever change. And I'm falling over the line: I'm beginning to ask, 'Where's mine?'
