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OpEdNews Op Eds    H1'ed 7/27/22

Will American Democracy Vanish If We Don't Drain the Swamp?

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Thom Hartmann
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That began a great bifurcation of the Democratic Party into "clean" progressive and "corrupt" corporate wings.

A solution to this problem is to openly acknowledge it and work to fix it.

A big step forward would have been passage of the For The People Act, which would have ended much of the big money corruption the Supreme Court legalized, and provided for public financing of federal elections. It was defeated by a united front of every single Republican in both the House and Senate, and two corrupt, bought-off Democratic senators (Speaker Pelosi got it passed through the House).

With a large enough Senate Democratic majority next year, it might pass. And as Republicans continue to push forced birth and encourage more school- and mass-shootings, that majority may well be in sight.

We can't blow this election, and Republicans have handed Democrats the perfect issue, as Trump proved in 2016. (It didn't work for him in 2020 because Americans knew he'd made the corruption worse rather than better: we all saw his tax cut for billionaires, for example.)

There are few issues that animate American voters more than corruption in politics.

Young people know, for example, that climate action is stalled by every Republican in the Senate and Joe Manchin making piles of cash from his coal business while being the largest Senate recipient of fossil fuel money in Congress.

Minimum wage workers and people on Medicare know that every Republican in the Senate was helped by Kirsten Sinema, who shot down their hoped-for minimum wage raise and regulation of drug prices because of the big bucks she got from the same billionaires and industries that fund the GOP.

If the Democratic Party wants to win this fall and in 2024 in a big way, their best bet is to fully oppose corruption in all its forms and make the Supreme Court the public face of our current plague of today's political disease.

"Drain the swamp" has a nice ring to it. Democrats embracing it "- in both similar rhetoric and full substance "- is the best way to begin our republic's recovery from its near-death experience with Trump and his neofascist enablers.

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Thom Hartmann is a Project Censored Award-winning New York Times best-selling author, and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk program on the Air America Radio Network, live noon-3 PM ET. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights," "We The People," "What Would Jefferson Do?," "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle (more...)
 

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