Molly Ivins Quotes
Americans are not getting screwed by the Republican Party. They're getting screwed by the large corporations that bought and own the Republican Party.
Ivins, Molly, and Lou Dubose. Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America. Random House, 2003.
While President Barack Obama was primarily frequently insulted by white conservatives, black left-wingers also went after him.
The then New York gubernatorial candidate was rejecting the support of a major political leader, Patrick H. McCarren, who had been a paid lobbyist for Standard Oil.
Goldman Sachs, one of the largest worldwide financial corporation, not only spent millions on lobbyists to shape government law and regulation, but its ex-officials served on high government positions including Treasury Secretary. They also give large amounts to finance campaigns of Congressmen and other public officials who were then very sympathetic to Goldman Sachs’ welfare. There is no practical way a citizen voter can overcome that situation, especially by exercising the voting franchise.
He made this quotation when he was a member of the Wisconsin State legislator. He was describing the influence and interaction that corporations had with the Wisconsin state legislative process.
At the time this was a very widely held, bipartisan view. See {634818} . Given statements like this, TR if he were alive today would never be able to get the Republican Nomination for President; nor could he obtain the Democratic Nomination because of his view on the military, expansionism, defense spending and war.
Not only both parties agreed on the evil of corporate money in politics, but there was not even a single dissent on this point. Also, the President was in agreement {634816}. A century later, there were only a handful of senators who did not think that corporate money was critical in politics. This was a flip flop for BOTH major parties.
Note the difference in standards that existed at the beginning of the 20th century. The Wall Street Journal was offended because corporations had paid agents in labor unions, legislatures and political parties. A century later it was common for corporations to have many lobbyists (overt and covert) in legislatures,. They had key representatives in political parties and gave the parties huge fiscal and service contributions and not only had their paid agents in labor unions but often sometimes paid the officers of the unions. The morality of 1904 seems almost quaint.
The Governor was campaigning in the Republican Presidential Primary. He was a very candid, conservative who was anxious to reform the party and make it less big business oriented. Publicly admitting to this fact was resented by many in the party who thought the association with big business was a good thing for both the party and the country.
Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins was an American newspaper columnist, author, political commentator, and humorist.
