Molly Ivins May 4, 1997: "We didn't realize we were giving them power over us"

[kpete]

Molly Ivins
from: May 4, 1997
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AUSTIN, Texas — Of all the stunning moments reported in Bob Reich's new book, "Locked in the Cabinet," perhaps the saddest is an observation made in 1993 by Rep. Marty Sabo of Minnesota, then chairman of the House Budget Committee. Asked why the Democrats in Congress wouldn't fight for working people, Sabo replied: "We're owned by them. Business. That's where the campaign money comes from now. In the 1980s, we gave up on the little guys. We started drinking from the same trough as the Republicans. We figured business would have to pay up because we had the power on the Hill.

"We were right. But we didn't realize we were giving them power over us. And now we have both branches of government, and they have even more power. It's too late now."

The party of Big Money in Washington — that being both of them — has reached a deal on the budget that gives tax cuts to the richest people in the country and cuts programs for the poorest people.

http://www.creators.com/opinion/molly-ivins/molly-ivins-may-4-1997-05-04.html

[niyad]

1. how I miss her

[antigop]

2. yep. That's why so many of us despised the DLC. n/t

[antigop]

3. another one by Molly...."Enough of the D.C. Dems"

http://progressive.org/mag_ivins0306

Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton.

[rudycantfail]

4. There is no other way to interpret what has happened

to the political system in America.

[antigop]

5. kick n/t

[freshwest]

6. I'd say the 'Reagan Democratic' vote is a large factor. They went for the God and cheap gas slogans.

I lived through those days and was very active politically. A number of people I knew voted for Reagan because they didn't like Carter's enforcment of equal opportunity laws, strict environmental protection and conservation measures.

Some may not remember the claims that women and people of color were getting jobs they 'weren't qualified for', and those were also the days of the 'reverse discrimination' cases. White males thought they were losing power and they were. Women going into the workforce during the Carter era and making good money also let to marital breakups. And Reagan's uber Christianity gave people that self-righteous feeling to justify some rather unpleasant bigotry they had.

So I don't blame Congress after seeing which way the wind blew. As far as them 'giving up on the little guys,' the little guys had given up on social justice and social mobility for those beneath them. They let old prejudices take them down and they never believed how tall that drop off was going to be for them, and their families. They didn't appreciate what the Democrats in Congress were doing for them up to that time and started voting GOP.

The sad fact is that a great many of the people I knew who had prospered under Carter, but were indignant about having minorities in their work place, were union men at my job. It was a real success for the Republican divide and conquer strategy, going for the worst feelings.

Many other union people didn't do it, but too many where I worked did. They were surprised when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers and then saw almost a decade of the corporations decimating the standard of living of working people.

It was a very depressing thing to watch and be aware of when it was happening. There was no way to argue with them as they'd jumped on the God and Guns bandwagon.

[hfojvt]

8. I think it was money as much as race, God or guns

they "had prospered" and they wanted the tax cuts that Reagan promised, and later didn't want the tax increases that Mondale promised, and same with Bush II and Kerry. Both Clinton and Obama also ran promising tax cuts, and no tax increases. Saying that business has all the power, is too simple. It is also the higher income people. People making $60-80,000 and up. Clearly they can afford to make more political donations than people making $30,000 and less.

[freshwest]

14. Yes. And the bosses through Reagan pushed through a two-tier system and they still vote GOP. Sad.

[fasttense]

10. Ronnie Raygun got voted in because of the hostage situation in Iran.

Raygun made a deal with the terrorists that if they kept the hostages until he sworn into office, then he would give them arms. To the minute of when he took the oath of office, the hostages were released. Raygun was holding the hostages captive as surely as the Iranian terrorist were. The American people voted for Raygun, the Movie Star with a Monkey, because they wanted the hostages released.

The Iranian terrorists refused to negotiate with Carter and it made him look weak. The RepubliCONS just played another con on the American people.

The RepubliCONS have rewritten the story. Made you believe we all believed in what Raygun wanted. But it's not true. There was NO Raygun Revolution. It was just another scam.

Yes, the Democrats have gone all-in in favor of corporations controlling America but it wasn't because of any real agreement between the American people and their politicians.

[freshwest]

15. Yes, the Iran and OPEC sham. I'm still arguing with these people. They won't budge from the GOP.

There is no difference of opinion from that part of the Democratic Party and the voters as they have kept on going to the right and expect to benefit from it. I don't go for broadbrush attacks on the Democratic Party as a whole, saying that they are no different from Republicans, etc. They still are on many issues. And staying home because of such memes as 'they're all corrupt tools' only elects more Republicans who are close to taking away the work of generations of good and not so good Democrats.

[bvar22]

12. Carter was the first President to be "SwiftBoated" by Big Money.

The CorpoMedia won that election for Reagan,
not Carter's stand for the Little People.

[freshwest]

16. +1,000. Yes, my life and that of my friends was good under Carter. The future was brighter then and

We had a country that was working to live up to the ideas we should and the country was healing and we had the freedom to work and get ahead. Also with that came the freedom to speak our minds on many things.

But some didn't want that to continue because they feared losing advantages. Almost as much as the assassinations of JFK, MLK and JFK, the defeat of Carter stands out as the day this country went backwards, sold out the future and turned its back on human progress.

[DeSwiss]

7. ''It's too late now.''

Exactly. The only way to change things for the better, is for this cancer-ridden corpse to come crashing down and be buried.....

[OranicManic]

9. And when it does...

THE Power structure will gain MORE power, offering bread and safety to the masses for a song.
They will still sit on top of the pile. And American seemed to have gotten ALOT dumber than we were 30 years ago.

[bvar22]

13. That is certainly a possibility.

If we do nothing and elect the Status Quo, then your prediction of "THE Power structure will gain MORE power" is a certainty.
See: NDAA and the renewal of the Patriot Act

There IS another possibility.
Our neighbors in Latin America have given us the Blue Print for "Change".
What they have accomplished is nothing short of near bloodless revolutions,
though you won't hear about if from the US Media, or the politicians protecting the Status Quo.

[font size=3]"The worst enemy of humanity is U.S. capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that nation states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated."[/font]
----Bolivian Reform President Evo Morales

FDR said much the same thing in 1944 with his Economic Bill of Rights.
Unfortunately, FDR and THAT Democratic Party are long dead,
killed by the DLC and BIG Money special interests,
as Molly so succinctly points out in the OP.



You will know them by their WORKS.
[font size=5 color=green][center]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
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[antigop]

17. +10000. Thanks, bvar22. Nice post. n/t

[66 dmhlt]

11. She is sorely missed ...