The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
You could say I lied. Unable to hear a soft-spoken friend in a noisy restaurant, I pretended to listen. Unable to hear a single word, I acted as though I heard and appreciated every word, responding to familiar cues with a laugh or a nod.
Recently Arizona Sen. Sinema insisted on preserving a loophole favoring the rich. Or she wouldn’t support the Inflation Reduction Act. She later claimed her action, which benefited the private equity donors who gave her over $5 million this election cycle, was not influenced, not one bit, no way, no how, by the deafening multi-million dollar jackpot ringing coin into her coffers.
Why pretend to give an ear to the two-thirds of Arizonans who favor raising taxes on the rich? Her favorite ring, “F- off”, says it all. It’s hard to hear anyone over the roaring Niagara of special interest silver.
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Forbes says, “Over the last five years Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema has received contributions from more than 50 billionaire supporters, all but one of whom hail from outside of her home state of Arizona.”
All but one billionaire. At least one Arizonan has her ear.
When Sinema returned for her annual checkup I heard she told her doctor, ”Everyone in Arizona thinks I’m a liar.”
He said, “Coming from you, I find that very hard to believe.”
We Arizonans have come to accept there are two types of politicians. There are the politicians who admit their votes are influenced by their donors. And then there are the liars. We understand why. What three words describe any maverick who bucks this charade and votes against the interest of their donors? One. Term. Loser.
We’re to blame. We prefer entertaining, comforting lies to dull, hard facts. We punish the quiet truth tellers and reward the vacuous soundbite peddlers, the jaw-clacking ventriloquist dummies, spineless dolls, animated by the mouth-flapping hands of their special interests cashing in on their quid pro quo purchased with their unlimited “free speech.”
In our plutocracy, perpetual fundraising is the chief duty of these Congressional concubines. This is why when Satan greeted a liar, a panhandler and a stooge at the gates of Hell he looked up from his red hot ledger and said, “Welcome home, congressman.”
We reward those public serpents who can say, with counterfeit conviction, “The donations I receive from special interest do not affect my vote.“ Right.. And you don’t like power. And Washington, and every state capitol, is not a parliament of perfidious prostitutes.
When the plutocrat’s Supreme Court ruled corporations are people, dark money’s dandy and money is free speech, the gavel fell, the bidding was opened and every hour, every day your democracy is sold, sold, sold to the highest bidder.
Example. Barre Seid, A right-wing tech magnate, recently floated a $1.6 billion donation through loopholes into the purse of the Federalist Society, the extreme right-wing cabal that grooms extremist jurists for our courts, radicals like Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett, who consistently overrule the will of the people by overturning reproductive rights, environmental codes, gun safety laws and your right to vote. Hammer out your song of danger and ring that bell of freedom all you want, it won’t be heard over the sweet sound of the coins jangling in the pockets of the plutocrats.
Our government of the plutocrats, by the plutocrats, for the plutocrats, secured by their handpicked jurists, poisoned by their propaganda media empires, successfully gerrymandered your vote into an inaudible whisper, giving us a vast moderate majority ruled by a radical extreme minority.
It would be easier if candidates wore jumpsuits like the ones worn by racecar drivers, with the logos of their corporate donors and the names of their billionaire backers clearly visible. But they don’t.
Some representatives are clean. Many are not. Here’s your path to enlightenment, patriot:
1. First, check the FBI’s “Most Wanted” site.
2. Visit azcleanelections.gov. In ’98, you, the people of Arizona, disgusted by your feckless lawmakers, assembled, organized, passed petitions, and voted to create the Citizens Clean Election Commission, an organization that provides public dollars to clean candidates who reject dark money. Watch the debates they will host. Study their informative site. Learn about the candidates.
3. Learn who donated money to them at opensecrets.org.
4. Their voting records are at justfacts.votesmart.org.
5. Learn what organizations endorsed them. Democrats and independents can look at bluevoterguide.org. Republicans can look to their anti-democratic criminal to see who he’s endorsed.
6. Support grassroots-funded candidates running on small-dollar donations from average citizens like yourself.
Our path to salvation is as plain as the nose on the face of every Pinocchio plundering the Potomac. Join the chorus of the disgusted. Raise up your voices. Be heard. Vote.
