29 August 2009

Bill Moyers speaks truth to power


Bill Moyers - award-winning journalist for 60 years - offers his trenchant insight into Washington politics during a discussion of health care reform:
MOYERS: I don’t think the problem is the Republicans . . . .The problem is the Democratic Party. This is a party that has told its progressives -- who are the most outspoken champions of health care reform -- to sit down and shut up...

And I think the reason for that is -- in the time since I was there, 40 years ago, the Democratic Party has become like the Republican Party, deeply influenced by corporate money. I think Rahm Emanuel, who is a clever politician, understands that the money for Obama’s re-election will come from the health care industry, from the drug industry, from Wall Street . . .

Money in politics -- you’ve had in the last 30 years, money has flooded politics . .. the Supreme Court saying "money is free speech." It goes back to the efforts in the 19th Century to give corporations the right of personhood -- so if you as a citizen have the right to donate to campaigns, then so do corporations. Money has flowed in such a flood into both parties that the Democratic Party gets a lot of its support from the very interests that -- when the Republicans are in power -- financially support the Republicans.

You really have essentially -- except for the progressives on the left of the Democratic Party – you really have two corporate parties who in their own way and their own time are serving the interests of basically a narrow set of economic interests in the country...

Excerpted by Glenn Greenwald from Moyers' conversation with Bill Maher. More at the Greenwald link, which then links to the full interview.

3 comments:

  1. What about the public option, Bill? Eventually, that will weaken the insurance industry, wouldn't it?

    Yes, Dems shouldn't have sold the farm on price negotiating with pharmacies as Obama alledgedly did, but he did win their support in deducing costs by billions.

    The Democrats are the only option. Parties have to build a coalition of voters. We don't have a Parliamentarian system. Greens can't win, certainly not the presidency, so you have 2 choices. Republicans are status quo so you can't vote for them.

    The only good advances we've made in our society have been brought by Dems. If they haven't gone far enough it's because too many Americans are stupid enough to believe something like that our president wasn't born in Hawaii and don't even vote in their own economic interests.

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  2. I agree entirely with Bill Moyers on this and have told the DNC no more contributions for just that reason.

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