Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktI don’t see how anyone on the right or the left can deny the influence of money in politics. I don’t think it’s a partisan issue. The middle class keeps slipping further and further behind and last time I checked they weren’t all Democrats.
On Wednesday afternoon, the House was steamrolling toward passage of a trio of free-trade agreements without a whisper of objection from the Republican side. Finally, hours into the debate, Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) rose to appeal to his fellow Tea Partyers to heed the people who elected them.
“Here we have roughly 9.1 percent unemployment in this country, due in no small part to the Washington elite jamming these job-destroying trade agreements down our throats,” Jones pleaded on the House floor. “It’s time we started listening to the will of the American people, doing what’s in the best interest of the American people, not in the best interest of the foreign nationals who desperately want to take our jobs.”
It was a passionate speech but useless. Lawmakers, including the overwhelming majority of Tea Party Republicans, voted in support of the three trade deals, which had been at the top of corporate America’s wish list.
For all the talk of populist foment – the Tea Party on the right and the new Occupy Wall Street movement on the left – business interests remain firmly in control. Forced to choose between their voters and their donors, lawmakers don’t hesitate before choosing the latter.
There is little doubt about where the Tea Party faithful stands on free trade. A year ago, a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll found that 61 percent of Tea Party supporters thought free-trade agreements had hurt the country, compared to 53 percent of Americans overall who held that view. Shortly after that, a Pew Research Center poll found that only 24 percent of Tea Party supporters thought free-trade agreements were good for America.
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All Things in Moderation 
Does anyone know the technical changes that made the deals so welcome by all now when they were vilified by left and right three months ago? Just curious.
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Does anyone know the influence of the Caterpillar Tractor Company on the Chile deal?I think the S. Korea deal could stand on its own, or at least apart from the others. I am thinking SK is a first world nation now, albeit a new one.
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Not much has changed Mark except that Lee is here or coming here and touring GM with Obama, and thisThe White House said late Tuesday that Bogota had approved an "action plan" to improve labor rights and vowed to ensure it has been "successfully implemented" before Washington fully brings that accord into force.
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Money in politics. Hard to avoid and, when you think about it, barter in politics would only be worse. Almost everything would have to be a quid-pro-quo–what else would a politician have to exchange but political favors every time he wanted a goat or a chicken?
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"For all the talk of populist foment – the Tea Party on the right and the new Occupy Wall Street movement on the left – business interests remain firmly in control. Forced to choose between their voters and their donors, lawmakers don’t hesitate before choosing the latter."I think this is true, but simplistic. This isn't just a monetary transaction, it's a shift in paradigms as politicians move from outsider to insider, from Jefferson's citizen farmer to professional politician. I think most politicians cease to identify with the rabble that elected and supported them, and begin to identify with the political class, a class that includes their wealthy donors, but where it's more than money that shifts the mindset. Someone who starts poor but becomes wealthy becomes adjusted to the fact, and will one day think nothing of an impulse purchase that costs them what once might have been a full years pay. An outsider becomes accustomed to being an insider, a rebel becomes accustomed to being a ruler, and ceases to identify with citizens he once fought with. While term limits can help, it's only been a year since 2010 and already the Tea Party candidates are becoming Cocktail Party politicians.
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I'd be curious to hear McWing's opinion on this, as he's the only bonafide Tea Party member here as far as I know. I guess my point here is that sometimes people just get angry that Washington ignores them in favor of the large donors. Why bother having polls or even elections for that matter if number one, they don't listen to their constituents or number two, when they get to DC they become a different person than the one who was doing the campaigning? The average Joe is frustrated by that. Right now the frustration is more acute because of the decline of Main Street.
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Meant Colombia, not Chile.Good post, LMS.
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