The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    CVille Dem's picture

    The Narcissists Among Us

    By CVille Dem on Tue, 10/05/2010 - 9:56pm |

    This is more of a rant than a thoughtful blog, but I just want to register my opinion on this concept of billionaires using THEIR OWN MONEY to run for office. I have been struck by the way this has been portrayed, as though it stemmed from some altruistic motive of the billionaires to serve our country. How about reporting that most of the self-financing politicians run on the backs (and donations) of poor schmucks who give a hugely larger percentage of their income in the false belief that the wedge issue republicans are on their side. My question is this: Is it better to spend YOUR OWN MONEY? Or is it better to get OTHER PEOPLE'S money if you want to be elected? OH! HOW DID I FORGET? CORPORATE AND LOBBYIST MONEY MAKES THE REST ALL RELATIVE.

    Comments

    Yeah Miguel hit my site with a comment about this.

    I wrote a blog on Perry and how he gathers his millions to keep his sorry seat in the Governor's Mansion in Texas.

    If you wish to spend your own money and do not get reimbursed, there is not a damn thing anyone can do about that.

    the end


    by Richard Day on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 1:16am

    Here's another editorial outlining some of what we face since Citizen's United/the proliferation of 501c nonprofits as fronts for anonymous political giving DD.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/opinion/06wed1.html?partner=rssnyt&emc...


    by miguelitoh2o on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 2:56pm

    A majority of Americans... probably us working folks are ready for public financing of campaigns... we just need to find a healthy, realistic model and hit the streets.  It will have to be a grass roots effort all across the country.  We can't get the representation we deserve when leaders are so far removed from the majority of people.  Right now it's feeling more like aristocracy and oligarchy rule than the people rule.


    by synchronicity on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 2:02am

    Hey, C'Ville --

    I know nothing about the ideological persuasion of the Mises Institute, or Doug French who apparently runs it, but by googling "personality profile of people who run for political office" I did find this fascinating article by him which compares and contrasts those who come to power by: a) birth (monarchy); b) election (democracy); and, c) self-perceived elitism (success in the private sector). Not hard to see which impetus impels Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, as well as Mitt Romey et al:

    http://mises.org/daily/4739

    It's definitely worth the read. Lots of interesting quotes from, among others, H.L. Mencken versus Hans Hermann Hoppe, etc.. And charts -- always good.

    Let me know what you think. 


    by wws on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 10:08am

    Citations of Hayek and Lew Rockwell (?), among others, point this out to me as something of a right-wing extremist/libertarian site.

    I much prefer the simpler version, found in one of the later Frank Herbert "Dune" series, even as the tail was vigorously wagging whatever remained of the dog.  A Bene Gesserit maxim, springing outward from Lord Acton's famous "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." held power itself to serve as a magnet for the corruptible.


    by Austin Train on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 12:31pm

    Ooooh; you don't happen to remember their mantra that began "Fear is the mind-killer", do you, A-train; I try to reconstruct it when I'm er...terrified, sometimes.  I think it was said most often before the apllication of the gom jabbur (spelling?).


    by we are stardust on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 12:39pm

    I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

    Google is your friend.


    by Austin Train on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 12:58pm

    Well; Google is at least your friend, A-train!  Thank you for that; I'll tuck it away.

    It really is great imagery; even my broken version helped.


    by we are stardust on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 1:04pm

    That was what the Harkonnen Mentat Pieter de Vries said before taking sapho juice. I don't recall it having any relation to the gom jabbar.


    by Donal on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 1:19pm

    I'd trust your memory over mine, Donal.  I thought Jessica taught it to Paul Atreides before the Reverend Helen **** Gaius tested Paul with the Box.  It's likely I am confused; I'm used to it.   ;o)


    by we are stardust on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 2:01pm

    Mises.org is the site for extreme right-wing economic views.  It's the home of the "Austrian school of economics," which I put in quotes because essentially no one but the adherents actually consider it a school of economics.


    by DF on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 1:55pm

    Wendy, thanks for the link. I thought it was very thought-provoking, and I agree that the quotes are excellent. I don't know about the Mises Institute either, but using quotations from people of different persuasions doesn't make me think they are right-wing at all. The Mencken quotes were gems, and referencing Maslow's hierarchy of needs brought it all down to the abc's of narcissism, which was my point in the first place.

    by CVille Dem on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 12:54pm

     Hello . . .

    The Mises Institute is labeled as a libertarian (note small 'l') academic organization. Sure...

    Lew Rockwell is the Chairman. Ol' Lew, on the Rodney King affair lost me years ago.  That alone is a no-go for me right out of the box...

    It all sounds so academic, but...

    Buyer beware.

    ~OGD~


    by oldenGoldenDecoy on Wed, 10/06/2010 - 1:14pm