It seems with each passing day my Progressive world keeps getting smaller and smaller. We watched John Edwards drop out of the race days before “Super Tuesday” (and I’m suspicious about that), and today I asked Move-On to unsubscribe me from their mailing list which actually pained me because I was very involved with Move-On here in Greenville. I am going to miss working with some of the people I have met here, but I’m sure that we will see each other during other Progressive projects here.
The reason I can no longer support Move-On is for the endorsement that they handed to Senator Obama. I have a problem with Obama because of his campaign financing. I find it very difficult to believe that he is an “agent of change” when he openly takes money from the very industries and corporations that have been at the heart of this country’s change from a representative Republic to a corporate oligarchy. In Senator Obama’s list of donors is a line-up of the majority of corporations that make up the “military industrial complex”. This may not be an issue for many, but for me, it is a tragedy of great consequence. I don’t support and will not support another politician that is obligated to the same corporate boards that are supporting free trade alliances that promote outsourcing of American jobs overseas, fighting regulation by the Federal Government, and accepting subsidies from the Federal Government on each gallon of gas sold in America.
I can’t support a candidate that takes money from commercial banks while they gouge American credit card holders and are responsible for fiscal policies that have led to this sub-prime fiasco, Insurance Companies that have, due to deregulation, raised the rate on insurance policies to the point where in Florida people can hardly afford hurricane insurance for their homes, and where Allstate has been forbidden to write anymore auto policies by the State Insurance Commission because of their exorbitant rates. Obama also takes donations from the Hedge Fund industry while they send their profits to the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes on these profits.
Senator Obama is second only to Senator Clinton in taking money from the Pharmaceutical Industries where the cost for drugs in America has forced many people to go to other countries where they can buy these drugs for a fraction of the cost they pay for them here. The lobbyists for Big Pharma has made sure that the government has made it illegal to do so, but many Americans ignore the law to obtain drugs that they need to survive. These companies are also continuously lobbying for rules that make it illegal for Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate prices for drugs. The only Federal Agency that may do so is the VA. This is one reason that the VA pays half of what the other federal agencies pay. When it comes to national health care, the Pharmaceutical companies, along with the Health Professions including HMO’s and Nursing Homes, another industry that Obama is second only to Clinton, will not stand idly by while their #2 recipient of their campaign dollar, negotiates away their stranglehold on the medical establishment.
Money talks in this country. Obama has chosen to take the money from the corporations he will go head to head with for any type of Progressive change. It is ludicrous to believe that he won’t remember the funding they supplied to him in his Presidential campaign, especially if he returns four years later with his hand out expecting them to contribute to his second term.
It’s absolutely amazing that Move-On, and more than that, the American people can trust someone that is financed by the very same people that in the case of the oil companies, backed the invasion of Iraq, and in the case of the medical industry have done everything possible to avoid national healthcare. How will Obama move past this obligation he has to these corporations? The other side of the coin is that if he throws them to the curb, exactly how trustworthy will he be to the American people?
This is a conundrum for Senator Obama. This isn’t just a problem for him; it is also a problem for us. Now it is a problem for Move-On also. Senator Feingold called John Edwards voting record “problematic”. I think he would call Obama’s campaign financing and Clinton’s campaign financing “problematic” also. I can bet that compared to these two, he wishes Edwards was back in the race.
That’s the way I see it.
