Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Dem. senators spent weekend with bank, energy, tobacco lobbyists

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Dem. senators spent weekend with bank, energy, tobacco lobbyists

from Politico. The author contrasts the following rhetoric of NJ Senator Robert Menendez (chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) who has echoed the White House denunciation of "special interests" and "fat cats", with the guest list of the "winter retreat" at the Ritz Carlton South Beach Resort:

“In the upcoming elections, voters will face a choice between Republicans who are standing with Wall Street fat cats, bankers and insurance companies -- or Democrats who are working hard to clean up the mess we inherited by putting the people’s interests ahead of the special interests," Menendez said in a press release last Wednesday.