(03-27-2023, 10:24 PM)mikesez Wrote: CNN is promoting an clip of Fareed Zakaria interviewing Jon Stewart.  Jon nails it in my opinion, pointing out that three people have already gone to jail after working closely with Trump, and at least one of them clearly took the fall for Trump.  But he then says this is about more than Trump.  For him it's about how if you're rich enough and powerful enough in this country, you simply won't be prosecuted for crimes other than maybe rape or murder.  He says the average person knows this well, and they've been mad about it for a long time.  Stewart says that the American people were attracted to Trump in part because they thought Trump might dismantle this legal privilege that rich people clearly have. That rings true to me.
But Trump obviously wasn't willing OR able to make any progress in that area.  The phrase is overused, but I mean it literally.  If you think he was willing to dismantle elite privilege, he must not have been able.  If you think he was able to dismantle elite privilege, then he must not have been willing.  The privilege clearly remains.  And today I think it's obvious that Trump benefits from a lot of that privilege.  This Manhattan DA case is mostly BS, but what about the bank fraud? What about the fraudulent charity?  Corrine Brown went to jail for less.  But I digress.
All that said, is the remedy to all this elite impunity as simple as "get money out of politics"? If so, how do we "get money out of politics"? What are examples of places that have done this?  Is there anything to learn from state level election law?

I stand by the idea of having single item bills.  No riders, no additions, every issue goes to an up or down vote on its own merit.  I firmly believe that will remove a lot of the corruption and influence peddling as well as money at the federal level.  It will also push much of the legislation back to the state level where it belongs.

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