| First, the Machine swept up as much cash as they could broom out of Washington DC where all the lobbyists with an interest in a variety of special interest legislation eagerly grabbed their checkbooks and attended a fundraiser thrown on his behalf by no less than Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In machine politics actual positions on issues have absolutely no meaning whatsoever since those positions will be dictated to you by your new friends the lobbyist attorneys from K Street, Dewey Cheatham and Howe, LLC.
Then the Machine swooped in and grabbed up as many union endorsements as possible, this all before a website was even built or a position paper even conceived of. No need for grassroots volunteers, the union brothers and sisters will man the phones at the phone bank and distribute the propag....uh campaign literature for him.
Next came ad buys from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or the D Triple C as they are called. Think of the DCCC as the WalMart of campaign finance for Democrats. You don't get in to see someone from the DCCC unless they want to see you or you have to know someone who works with them on another campaign. This means Carson doesn't have to spend a dime as much on ads for his special election because his good friends at the DCCC are footing the bill for him (h/t to Vox Populi, thanks for correcting me) so he can stockpile his money that he raises to slam other Democrats in the upcoming 2 month Civil War reenactment starting on March 12th.
Thomas Jefferson, whose home Monticello is the inspiration for the name of this blog, famously spoke against the participation of political parties in our Republic. Political parties, Jefferson argued, were anathema to the democratic principles upon which This Great Country Of Ours was founded. He was right, every political party in the history of the United States has chosen the path of the partisan bickering and skullduggery we have come to expect from our alleged leaders. This is why good people with great leadership skills go into other lines of work where they can do some good. See Al Gore if you need an explanation for this.
Machine politicians like Andre Carson do not look upon public service as a calling, they look upon it as a stepping stone toward a wealthy future role as a lobbyist or consultant for the next generation of partisan hacks who wander the halls of Congress with fists full of dollars stuffed into their pants pockets by the previous generation of hacks who now work for Big Pharma, Big Media, Big Tobacco, Big Oil and Big Finance. The Machine needs Oiled, by jove and fresh blood is required from time to time to oil it. Squeaky wheels get the grease and so on.
All of this adds up to a system so broken and confuzzled to the average man and woman that they simply throw their hands up and vote for the Machine backed candidate because the noise generated by the Machine is so loud they can't be ignored. Most people just want to have some peace and quiet in their lives and when the echo chamber gets wound up good and loud they will do anything to shut it off so they can watch the real Deal Or No Deal instead of the circus in which we find ourselves the poor lions jumping through flaming hoops. |
