Articles/ Book Reviews/ Movie Reviews/ Letters/ Thought for the Day/ Today's News/ Bookmarks/ Fisher House Publishers
Political change needed for democratic renewal
“A change in practices is essential before we can have a renewal of democracy,” says columnist Arianna Huffington. The former candidate for governor of California recently spoke at Northwest Missouri State University.
This is not a right or left issue, she says. Rather it is an issue of right or wrong.
She describes her plan for American renewal in her new book called “Fanatics and Fools.” The “fanatics” change the facts or ignore them anytime the facts do not match a preconceived notion. They claim to be doing God’s bidding and are intolerant of dissent. Anyone who disagrees with them is unpatriotic.
The “fools” enable the fanatics. They went along with the invasion of Iraq and tax cuts to the rich without protesting. The fools claim that democratic renewal will occur one step at a time over a longtime. However, they do not take into account that the fanatics have set the agenda and have the momentum.
Americans “are hungry for a bold vision of where we are going.” On September 12, 2001 the fear Americans felt the day before turned to hope and generosity. These feelings are “still ready to be tapped,” according to Huffington.
A number of obstacles stand in the way of democratic reform – lobbyists, pollsters, media.
What do Chet Lott, Linda Daschle, Ken Reid and Anne Bingaman have in common? They are all children or spouses of U.S. Senators and they are all lobbyists in Washington. They are four of dozens of lobbying families in Washington. Huffington says there should be a rule of one per family – either a lobbyist or politician but not both.
According to Huffington, lobbyists, representing big business, dictate the policy in the nation’s capital. For example, Detroit has the technology for hybrid cars that will get 60 miles per gallon. Detroit has the ability to produce cars that don’t use gas. Yet, Detroit continues to produce gas-guzzling SUVs, because of the oil and gas lobby’s influence on Washington politicians.
“Fuel efficiency and fuel independence are tied together,” says the columnist. In fact, our oil dependence supports terrorism. Oil money in Saudi Arabia supports terrorism, she claims.
Another example of the influence of lobbyists is off-shore tax shelters. $70 billion sits off-shore in tax shelters. Halliburton alone has $44 billion in offshore tax shelters, allowing the company to save $387 million in taxes.
Great leaders ask people to do something, says Huffington. Today’s politicians govern based on polls. For example, before 9/11 only 1% of Americans were concerned about terrorism. No wonder politicians were not paying attention to terrorism.
Before the first presidential debate Bush was 14% ahead in the polls. After the debate some polls put Kerry ahead by 8%. That would mean 28 million Americans changed their minds after the first debate, says Huffington.
When Bush had a 14% lead, the Democrats saw reduced fundraising and the number of volunteers decreased. People were discouraged.
However, polls are not accurate. Seventy percent of Americans refuse to participate. It’s a “small minority of bored and lonely Americans” that are telling the rest of us what to think, says Huffington. With millions of new voters, that are not being survey, its impossible to tell the outcome of the election from polls.
Politicians and the media are addicted to polling results, which are mostly meaningless. “Horoscopes are a better way of telling the future.”
Her solution: Don’t talk to pollsters at all.
Huffington says the state of the media is dire. One of the reasons is that the media has been taken over by huge business conglomerates. Reporters pander to the pet issues of the owners and are restricted from providing good investigative reporting.
Also, reporters in an attempt to appear objective get comments from opposing parties. This polarizes issues. The truth is lost somewhere in between. What is needed is a greater commitment to telling the truth.
The news media suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder. They fail to follow-up and stay with stories. Also, they have a voyeur mentality in their unending coverage of scandals like Michael Jackson and the Scott Peterson trail. These are personal tragedies that Huffington says don’t deserve the coverage they get.
Her remedy is to “watch what you watch.” Don’t support media that provide poor and biased coverage.
“Only movements can change the way we do business in America,” claims Huffington. As everyone gets engaged we get closer to the critical mass needed to convince politicians to act.
It was a grass roots movement on the Internet that convinced President Bush to not appoint Henry Kissinger to head the 9/11 Commission. A grass roots movement caused Trent Lott to step down as majority leader in the Senate.
Governments are elected by only 50% of the eligible voters. Something needs to be done “to bring the other 50% back into the fold.” In 2000 22 million single women didn’t vote, because they didn’t think government was meaningful. People don’t believe politics makes a difference.
What we need is leaders who stand on principles. In 1968 Bobby Kennedy galvanized people. The same passion was felt everywhere. When Kennedy died, something died in America.
Robert Kennedy liked to quote George Bernard Shaw: “You see things: and say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were: and say ‘Why not?’”
It’s that attitude that will bring about political renewal in America, says Huffington.
John Fisher, October 26, 2004
Laurie David and Arianna thank Michael Moore for his work. Photo
<http://www.ariannaonline.com/>
