US 2010 Mid-Term Elections: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy Or Lessons For Fiji?

Croz Walsh latest posting comments on the US 2010 Mid-term elections and the lessons need to be learnt by Fiji, is a thought provoking post, on which SIFM could not resist to offer some minor additions to the narrative.

Croz Walsh -- The American Mid-Term Elections Ask Questions about...: "The cartoons tell all by Crosbie Walsh Two years ago Americans elected their first Black president and the world looked, very briefly, as..."

While Croz posting, did have some truths to it, there are some clarifications to be made, from a perspective of a US based political observer.
Croz alluded to the global recession's catalyst, as the mortgage meltdown:

The President had hardly been installed than the American world turned pear-shaped, taking most of the rest of the world with it. Banks had lent billions of mortgage and other money to people with no collateral's and who could not afford them, re-bundled these shaky moneys with others equally shaky and passed them on, disguised, to other bankers and insurers.

Other views on this episode of greed, is an award winning radio documentary "The Giant Pool of Money" produced by 'This American Life' and the movie "Inside Job" (trailer posted below).

Coupling the voter disenchantment with the bank bailout, (in the context of mid-term elections) come from Pop and politics, a radio program and online magazine, which analyzes the outcome of the Nov 2nd 2010, mid term elections and confronts the contentious issue of post-racial America and the dissatisfaction with the incumbents prior to Nov. 2nd elections.

Croz is also on mark when he points out the electorate anger on a variety of concerns, whether real or perceived:

And then BP caused a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The President had nothing to do with the granting of the BP drilling licence or the spill but his critics blamed him for not doing enough.
The troops are coming home from Iraq but the situation looks no better there; the situation in Afghanistan remains bad; as does the Israeli-Palestine conflict. The President tried but the problems are too big to resolve in ways American voters wanted and expected.

One loose string that connected Obama with BP, was the political donations his campaign received, according a POLITICO article, "[Obama was] one of the biggest recipients".

This unethical alliance was addressed in Greg Pallast's forum discussion on his published book: "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy", outlining the corporate tentacles in the U.S political scene.

Croz also highlights the controversial issue of campaign financing, during the campaign run up to the mid-terms:

But even if direct financial contributions to election campaigns were limited, it really would have had little effect. There are so many ways of making indirect contributions, and so many ways of “discouraging” counter-contributions.

While Croz questions how Obama lost his popularity among independent voters, pointing to the absence of the young generation of voters. The turn out of young voters during mid terms, are historically not high; a stat featured in a (CIRCLE) Youth Civic advocate group article.

It seems that this group of independent voters may have been turned off by Obama's unfulfilled campaign promises, among these are: Closing Guantanamo prison facility, ending the Afghanistan war and repealing "Don't Ask, Don't tell" bans in the army.

Croz's cross references to the role of the media prior, during to the U.S mid-term elections, is a cogent correlation point:

The key to all this — and the key to democracy — lies with the media. The media need to be free to publish views contrary to those of their owners. But not so free that they seldom publish information to keep the voting public uniformed on important issues.

And that is where American democracy falls down. The media is a business owned by big business. The fact that one news channel competes with another means little. The competition is between businesses for better ratings and more advertising earning, not for more informative or investigative news of any consequence.

It is becoming an embarrassing stain on American politics, when the issues of money, elections, media subjects intersect on many different levels and many different occasions.

Volumes have been written on the subject on one or two or the subjects. Not all 3 with respect to their roles of influencing the citizenry, whereby affecting the election result, using the powerful tool of the media; and their tri-symbiotic affairs.

A clear example of these immoral behaviors were unraveled by a NPR investigative report (Part 1). (Part 2 of NPR investigative report.)


The NPR article uncovers the influence of lobbying private Prison developers with Arizona legislators, who basically drafted the controversial Arizona law SB 1070, currently being disputed in court.

Croz also broadly segments the use of money and its force-multiplying effects in an election. That particular statement will have to be reconciled with the results of California's Governor and U.S Senate race featuring Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina respectively; both multi-millionaires and outspending their political opponent lavishly.

Whitman, almost spending in the ballpark of US$140 million of her personal money to campaign for a $US200,000 salaried job with perks and power; undoubtedly foot steps away from the stairway to heaven .

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