Our Corrupted Democracy Has Its Lighter Moments
Here’s an excerpt from the remarks Steven Colbert made at an awards dinner honoring Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people shortly before our 2012 elections here in the U.S. The full transcript is linked above; it’s just too good…
Of course, all of us should be honored to be listed on the TIME 100 alongside the two men who will be slugging it out in the fall: President Obama, and the man who would defeat him, David Koch.
Give it up everybody. David Koch.
Little known fact — David, nice to see you again, sir.
Little known fact, David’s brother Charles Koch is actually even more influential. Charles pledged $40 million to defeat President Obama, David only $20 million. That’s kind of cheap, Dave.
Sure, he’s all for buying the elections, but when the bill for democracy comes up, Dave’s always in the men’s room. I’m sorry, I must have left Wisconsin in my other coat.
I was particularly excited to meet David Koch earlier tonight because I have a Super PAC, Colbert Super PAC, and I am — thank you, thank you — and I am happy to announce Mr. Koch has pledged $5 million to my Super PAC. And the great thing is, thanks to federal election law, there’s no way for you to ever know whether that’s a joke.
By the way, if David Koch likes his waiter tonight, he will be your next congressman.
For what it’s worth, the drive to disentangle Big Money from the law-making process in the U.S. continues full steam. MoveToAmend.Org, Saving American Democracy, and numerous other aspects of this movement are quickly gaining momentum, garnering massive levels of support from all parts of the political spectrum.
As you can see here in this link, we’re spend over half a trillion dollars a year on “defense” – https://static.nationalpriorities.org/images/charts/2015-charts/discretionary-desk.png
However, the greatest threat to our national security is here at home – it’s the very flood of bribery capital that has taken our state and national Capitols by storm.
The words of Abraham Lincoln illuminate the danger of inaction against the fixated and methodical army of corporate lobbyists – 11,000 strong and pouring out bribery at an average of $6 million per congressperson in 2012 alone…
“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
Good government is how We the People defend our Public Commons and advance our Common Good. Good government won’t come from people who hate government.
Want improvement? Ban bribery in all its forms. That’s the most important and central issue that controls all others. As long as cash reigns as king over our nation, we’ll more and more be slaves to vicious greed and craven cowardice.