On a typical weekday, I do not blog in the mornings...I reserve that for weekends when I have more time in the morning. But today, when I learned of Molly Ivins' death, I just wanted to post a note, an acknowledgement that her passing deserved at least a moment of my time to express my sadness at her loss. If I had been able to ignore the call of clients and the obligations I had accepted at work, I would have written about her for hours. I would have expressed my sense of appreciation and loss more eloquently than just the few words I used. But, I knew that many, many people who knew or at least appreciated Molly Ivins would share their thoughts with the world. I was right. There is so much about her in the mainstream media and in the blogosphere that it's hard not to read about her impact on politics and populist expression during her 40 year career.
I appreciate that Bev at Burning Silo acknowledged my posting and added some very good links about Molly. As I read comments about Molly this evening, I came across an interesting remembrance by Jim Hightower. The more I explored his blog, the more interesting it got. As I read his blog, I learned about the Center for Responsive Politics, whose website I visited and where I learned that Amway Corporation has made $7,652,216 in contributions in the election cycles from 1990 until 2006, with 100% of the contributions going to Republicans. But I learned, too, that the biggest donor, by far, was the $38,009,064 give by the American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees, 98% of which was given to Democrats. It surprised me to learn from the website that, of the top ten contributors during the same time period, eight leaned Democrat and two were 'fence sitters.'
I've said before and I'll say again: I am not a Democrat, but I'm far closer to being a Democrat than to being a Republican. The candidate-purchases, or the attempts at candidate purchases, reflected by the massive political contributions reported on the Center for Responsive Politics site reinforces my distrust of, my distaste for, politicians.
Molly's skepticism helped me get over the idea that one should support one party over another. Like Molly, I support ideas and principles, not parties. I think both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party should get the message that many, many of us are of that mind...and one day, progressive independents will come out of woodwork and take this country back for those of us who value the principles upon which this nation was founded.
3 comments:
I like what you say, John, about supporting ideas and principles. Yes, it isn't about the party, and Molly knew that well. Beautiful tribute to her. She will be missed.
I worked with a lot of AFSCME guys (and women) on the Dean campaign. I'd a lot rather have their support than the large corporations that contribute to Republicans.
I'm all for severely limiting campaign contributions, and expenditures. Here there is no TV or radio advertising at all.
Excellent tribute, John. I hope the parties do get the message, or that independents start to hold a greater share of power in your country. Up here, with five federal parties and some independents, it makes it a lot more difficult for one party to have much control. Unless there's a majority government, parties are forced to work together. It's not a perfect system, but it does have a few things going for it. Anyhow, yes, Molly had a way of cutting through the BS and getting to the heart of things. Peace, Molly.
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