Gary Hart: Welcome to the age of vanity politics & campaigns-for-hire.

[kpete]

Welcome to the age of vanity politics and campaigns-for-hire. What would our founders make of this nightmare?

The abandonment of "the common good and the interests of the commonwealth." All of it is an outcome, Hart believes, "our founders would not recognize and would deplore." Hart writes:

On a more personal level, how can public service be promoted as an ideal to young people when this sewer corrupts our Republic? At this point in early twenty-first-century America, the greatest service our nation’s young people could provide is to lead an army of outraged young Americans armed with brooms on a crusade to sweep out the rascals and rid our capital of the money changers, rent seekers, revolving door dancers, and special interest deal makers and power brokers and send them back home to make an honest living, that is, if they still remember how to do so.

What angers truly patriotic Americans is that this entire Augean stable is legal. Even worse, recent Supreme Court decisions placing corporations under the First Amendment protection of free speech for political purposes compounds the tragedy of American democracy. For all practical political purposes, the government of the United States is for sale to the highest bidder.

Yet, a Washington media enamored of its own savviness and protective of "access" greets legalized corruption with a shrug and a "So what?" Hart continues:

Restoration of the Republic of Conscience requires reduction and eventual elimination of the integrity deficit. Virtue, the disinterestedness of our elected officials, must replace political careerism and special interests. The national interest, what is best for our country and coming generations, must replace struggles for power, bitter partisanship, and ideological rigidity. This is not dreamy idealism; it is an idealism rooted in the original purpose of this nation.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-best-convention-speech-we-will.html
http://time.com/3937860/gary-hart-america-corruption/

[CrispyQ]

1. A long commentary, but worth the read.

Kick.

[FlatBaroque]

2. Only now do I realize that Hart HAD to be taken down

Our owners know when to pull the plug on someone. Be safe, Bernie.

[Raine1967]

3. KICK!

Excellent article, KPete. Thank you!

[McCamy Taylor]

4. Recall 2008. He said no Dem should criticize another Dem in the primary.

Words we should remember.