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by jonnathanson
3183 days ago
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"If plants were tested after production for indicators of plant health and labels could be put on vegetables indicating quality" It's a fine idea until Monsanto, et al., find a way to subvert the standards and bend them into an anticompetitive regulatory mote via government lobbying. What we really need, as Step Zero in any plan for wholescale reformation of American society, is to reimpose and reinforce campaign finance restrictions and sever the direct financial ties between our big corporations and the politicians who serve them. Some readers may choose to see this as a line item on the progressive wish list. I see it as a necessary precondition to any attempted societal change whatsoever. Right now, the very heart of our issue is that the government no longer serves the people of this country; it serves moneyed interests, nakedly and shamelessly. Obligatory Star Trek reference: America has become Ferenginar. We think we're the Federation, but we're headed down the wrong path for that. We are effectively an oligarchy at this point, heading in the direction of totally dysfunctional kleptocracy. The "us vs them" mindset tearing us all apart right now is a symptom of political polarization, which the lobbyists would consider to be a feature and not a bug. Until our voices matter to politicians more than David and Charles Koch's billions, we're fucked. Nothing will change, and anything we try to change will be immediately corrupted and turned against us. The fox bought the whole damned henhouse. |
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I don't disagree, but it seems to me that it is only possible to legislate such a thing when the problem such legislation would solve doesn't exist.
I tend to prefer even less likely solutions, such as term limits, or diffusion and decentralization of one or both of the legislative bodies, but these solutions run up against the same problem as campaign finance reform - the people with the power to enact the change are the ones who benefit most from the status quo.