In today's Washington, drug of choice is money

From the Houston Chronicle, former Democratic Speaker of the House Jim Wright on how cash is destroying democracy:

The root of all evil, Scripture warns, is the love of money. It is addictive. The narcotic, supplied gladly by those who want something from presidents and lawmakers, feeds a habit that demands more and more massive fixes.

Fifty years ago, in my own first race for Congress, I raised and spent less than $35,000. Last year, in an adjoining district, the expenditures of two competing candidates amounted to more than $4 million each.

When Nelson Rockefeller spent an estimated $12 million running for the GOP presidential nomination in the 1960s, that sum was considered scandalously high. Candidates last year made it look pitifully small. In 2000, George W. Bush reportedly raised and spent in excess of $200 million.

Congress members of both parties tell me that nowadays they are forced to engage in continuous, year-round fund raising. One confessed to me last year that he spent approximately three hours of every working day on the telephone, begging donations from wealthy contributors.

Who lost? The public, that's who. Those who thought their taxes were buying the wisdom, experience, energies and full-time service of legislators.

Click here for the rest.

Stolen elections aside, this is, in a nutshell, why I believe that we no longer live in a democracy.

(Technically, we've never lived in a democracy; we have always been a republic: nonetheless, our republic no longer represents the will of the people.)

The Democrats are just as guilty as the Republicans--this has been going on for a long, long time. Money has trumped the ballot box, and we're all suffering because of it. Who says crime doesn't pay?

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