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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (9938)	10/17/1998 1:58:00 PM
From: Volsi Mimir	Respond to of 67261

Democrats and Republicans both march along well-worn paths of symbolic politics, waving flags labeled "welfare," "crime," and "taxes" to divide Americans and win elections. Republicans cling to the illusion that government is the problem--even the enemy of freedom--and that less government and free markets will automatically relieve the fears of working Americans. Democrats cling to old programs, like worker retraining, without ever stopping to ask whether those programs are actually working to change lives for the better or whether jobs are available for the workers we are training. The political process is paralyzed. Democracy is at a standstill. The budget stalemate is only the latest headline. The federal government has not been able to act decisively and with public consensus behind it in years. On health care, on taxes, on creating jobs, on reforming welfare, we have been at continual deadlock. Democracy is paralyzed not just because politicians are needlessly partisan. The process is broken at a deeper level, and it won't be fixed by replacing one set of elected officials with another, any more than it was fixed in 1992 or 1994. Citizens believe that politicians are controlled: by special interests who give them money, by parties which crush their independence, by ambitions that make them hedge their position rather than call it like they really see it, and by pollsters who convince them that only the focus group phrases can guarantee them victory. Citizens affected by the choices we have to make about spending and regulation simply don't trust that the choice was made fairly or independently, or in some cases even democratically. They doubt that the facts will determine the result, much less the honest convictions of the politicians. Voters distrust government so deeply, and so consistently that they are not willing to accept the results of virtually any decision made by this political process. Bill Bradley excerpt from "Freeing Democracy from the Power of Money" billbradley.com