Seeing the light

One of the most eloquent progressive voices in recent years has been that of William Rivers Pitt, who has until recently been a strong Obama supporter, but whose bitter disappointment has opened his eyes to the reality of the present American political system:

"The pervasive corruption caused by the damfool idea that "Money = Speech," validated by Supreme Court decisions like Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, and the larger caustic concept that corporations are people - with the same rights and privileges of people - created a scenario where everyone involved in national power politics is bought, and so nobody is guilty. They have to be, if they want to get anywhere...but once they get somewhere, they're already gone. The so-called "liberal" Democratic Party has been as much at that filthy trough as any of the worst Republicans who could be named. The difference is only a matter of inches; they are all bought and paid for to one degree or another, and that unavoidable fact defines our current political reality as solidly as slavery defined the American political realm 150 years ago...except this time, we are the slaves - white, black, brown, men, women, gay, straight...everyone who lacks a seven-figure bankroll - all of us wreathed in chains we cannot see, even as those chains restrain us fully and rob us of our freedom completely."

www.truth-out.org/thinking-about-bobby65677

--Michael Hasty