In today's New York Times there is a short letter to the editor written by Bob Kerrey and Warren Rudman (both former US senators). Their letter addresses what they believe to be the core reason that voters are pessimistic. They point the finger at campaign finance reform.
The last paragraph sums it up:
Any such national forum must first of all fix our broken system by calling for public financing of all federal elections.
But that's only part of the problem, as far as I'm concerned.
We do need to clean up the financing of elections so people like Ned Lamont don't have to spend $15 million to get elected. They system is rigged when this happens because average citizens don't have that kind of disposable cash to test the electoral waters.
However, there is another component to our pessimism. It's the idiocy of someone like Bob Kerrey coming to campaign for and throw his support to the likes of Joe Lieberman. Kerrey has such a clear vision about Joe that he blurted out this gem during his visit to CT in October...
From the Hartford Courant Oct. 25, 2006
"I think it would be a terrible loss for the country to lose Joe Lieberman at this particular moment when, in many ways, Washington, D.C., is broken," said Kerrey, adding that he backs Lieberman because the senator is willing to listen to others and look for common ground on the most pressing issues of the day, such as terrorism.
"Joe's one of those guys," said Kerrey, who served as a Sept. 11 commissioner and is president of the New School University in New York. "He's very clear about what he believes. He's very forceful in delivering his views on what ought to be done."
The first paragraph is a wake-up call to the fact people just LIKE Lieberman have broken the system with their lobbyist money and power grabs. This explains why we turned Joe out in the Democratic primary this past August.
The last paragraph could just as easily describe George Bush. Is this really the criteria we want when judging our elected officials?
Bob Kerrey reminds me of what we all know as an enabler. People who turn a blind eye and see what they want to see..people who let friendship get in the way of asking the really tough and important questions.
Kerrey only addresses a part of the problem with voter pessimism (albeit it's a big problem), but it's also that we're sick of the good ole boy network, each one covering the other's backside, leaving the voter waiting for the next election to "fix the broken system".