Monday, April 25, 2011
THE PRICE OF EMBARRASSMENT
We now know the price of political embarrassment for Oklahoma’s new governor. The price to avoid such embarrassment is worth $54 million to Mary Fallin. This is the cost to Oklahoma taxpayers for Ms. Fallin to avoid embarrassment by being caught again voting against a bill in Congress, but taking the money as governor.
While Republican governors all over America are finding their embarrassment much less expensive to their state’s citizens, Oklahoma’s republicans find ideology more important this time – even if it costs us $54 million in a budget year in which that amount looks like pure gold to most Oklahomans.
Perhaps our governor was just not adept enough to make up a good rationale for accepting the money for organizing the insurance pools required by federal law. Other republican governors were able to think up some reason why it was a good idea. Their states are better off for their mental gymnastics.
Perhaps the cost could be phrased in some different ways than just money, i.e. in terms of what that money would do this year in Oklahoma. The money would prevent cuts in medical treatment for indigent children, cuts in services in prevention of child abuse, and cuts in food programs for poor children. It would alleviate some cuts to public schools, or it would prevent fee increases for college students and their parents. It would get more juvenile and drug courts established to divert youthful offenders from prison or provide costs for better supervision of adult prisoners allowing more to be kept outside of prison walls.
We hope the governor will ignore the bill coming to her desk from a legislature often found lollygagging off in right field, far away from the path of the ball.
But the greatest embarrassment for the GOP nationally this spring has to be Donald Trump. People know that Trump has always been something of a wing-nut, but many take him seriously. Trump has unleashed a torrid media attack on the President, and has often added some leaders of the Republican Party to his target list. The problem is that so much of what he is saying is ludicrous.
Most embarrassing to republicans should be Trump’s attack on the President’s birth in the United States. Of course, surveys show that 48% of Americans believe this lie, in spite of the proven facts. Maybe we should all hold our heads in shame that 48% of our people, almost totally republicans, believe such disproven tripe. Perhaps ignorance about race, the odd-sounding name, a Kenyan father, or the existence of the real state of Hawaii influences this foolish susceptibility.
If people are really this gullible to media propaganda, is it hopeless that we will ever again have an honest election based upon a contest of facts, logic, and personality? Since the high court gave corporations and the millionaires unlimited spending in politics, things may never be the same.
An electorate this gullible and impervious to facts and reality will elect anybody the media is paid to sell to them. They will believe all the conspiracy theories that are planted, promoted, and circulated by whatever means money can buy. They will believe in those so-called “grass roots” parties like the Tea Party bunch, although behind the scenes it is supported by the billionaire Koch brothers.
Considering all this, rank and file republicans ought to be embarrassed by the early fund-raising methods of all their new freshman congresspersons elected on all those wild but purist campaign presentations paid for by big business donations last fall. Of course, pledging purity while taking campaign ads paid for by the special interest groups in business should have been a bit suspicious to all.
For 87 of those new GOP freshmen the price of embarrassment during the first three months of their terms has been minimum PAC contributions of $50,000 or more each. For 18 of those GOP freshmen the price has been a little higher at $100,000 or more each from special interest groups these last three months. These folk are now a little hard to embarrass, of course.
Mr. Obama has been considering requiring federal contractors to disclose their political donations, replete with names of beneficiaries. Democrats and public interest groups agree this is a good idea, but business interests and republicans are fighting it tooth and nail. It makes us wonder just how bad things really are when they want to hide such information from the public.
Disclosure of how many federal contract dollars come back to their sponsoring politicians might indeed prove embarrassing. Public disclosure of the monetary connections between those who get government dollars with their vest pocket politicians could even be embarrassing enough to dry up some of that cash flow.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
While Republican governors all over America are finding their embarrassment much less expensive to their state’s citizens, Oklahoma’s republicans find ideology more important this time – even if it costs us $54 million in a budget year in which that amount looks like pure gold to most Oklahomans.
Perhaps our governor was just not adept enough to make up a good rationale for accepting the money for organizing the insurance pools required by federal law. Other republican governors were able to think up some reason why it was a good idea. Their states are better off for their mental gymnastics.
Perhaps the cost could be phrased in some different ways than just money, i.e. in terms of what that money would do this year in Oklahoma. The money would prevent cuts in medical treatment for indigent children, cuts in services in prevention of child abuse, and cuts in food programs for poor children. It would alleviate some cuts to public schools, or it would prevent fee increases for college students and their parents. It would get more juvenile and drug courts established to divert youthful offenders from prison or provide costs for better supervision of adult prisoners allowing more to be kept outside of prison walls.
We hope the governor will ignore the bill coming to her desk from a legislature often found lollygagging off in right field, far away from the path of the ball.
But the greatest embarrassment for the GOP nationally this spring has to be Donald Trump. People know that Trump has always been something of a wing-nut, but many take him seriously. Trump has unleashed a torrid media attack on the President, and has often added some leaders of the Republican Party to his target list. The problem is that so much of what he is saying is ludicrous.
Most embarrassing to republicans should be Trump’s attack on the President’s birth in the United States. Of course, surveys show that 48% of Americans believe this lie, in spite of the proven facts. Maybe we should all hold our heads in shame that 48% of our people, almost totally republicans, believe such disproven tripe. Perhaps ignorance about race, the odd-sounding name, a Kenyan father, or the existence of the real state of Hawaii influences this foolish susceptibility.
If people are really this gullible to media propaganda, is it hopeless that we will ever again have an honest election based upon a contest of facts, logic, and personality? Since the high court gave corporations and the millionaires unlimited spending in politics, things may never be the same.
An electorate this gullible and impervious to facts and reality will elect anybody the media is paid to sell to them. They will believe all the conspiracy theories that are planted, promoted, and circulated by whatever means money can buy. They will believe in those so-called “grass roots” parties like the Tea Party bunch, although behind the scenes it is supported by the billionaire Koch brothers.
Considering all this, rank and file republicans ought to be embarrassed by the early fund-raising methods of all their new freshman congresspersons elected on all those wild but purist campaign presentations paid for by big business donations last fall. Of course, pledging purity while taking campaign ads paid for by the special interest groups in business should have been a bit suspicious to all.
For 87 of those new GOP freshmen the price of embarrassment during the first three months of their terms has been minimum PAC contributions of $50,000 or more each. For 18 of those GOP freshmen the price has been a little higher at $100,000 or more each from special interest groups these last three months. These folk are now a little hard to embarrass, of course.
Mr. Obama has been considering requiring federal contractors to disclose their political donations, replete with names of beneficiaries. Democrats and public interest groups agree this is a good idea, but business interests and republicans are fighting it tooth and nail. It makes us wonder just how bad things really are when they want to hide such information from the public.
Disclosure of how many federal contract dollars come back to their sponsoring politicians might indeed prove embarrassing. Public disclosure of the monetary connections between those who get government dollars with their vest pocket politicians could even be embarrassing enough to dry up some of that cash flow.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
