Democratic controlled legislature bows to oil lobbyists
Here's a non-shocker of a news item--it seems that Democratic legislators in California are beholden to the oil industry.
According to this story in today's San Francisco Chronicle, "oil company lobbyists have helped tie up or kill almost a dozen bills considered hostile to the industry, including a plan to tax windfall profits and a proposal to regulate refineries as public utilities."
Which party controls the California legislature? You guessed it--the Democrats. The article reports:
Combating this kind of faulty belief that the Democrats speak for the common folk, rather than for big business, is the biggest challenge facing the left today. When a consumer advocate who is presented with a clear example of how the Democratic party favors big business over the interests of consumers simply tries to resolve this discrepancy between expectation and reality by declaring it "insane", we can see that we have a long way to go.
The task facing the left is clear--we must convince people that the Democratic Party is simply one of the two parties of the duopoly that governs on behalf of the capitalist ruling class. Only by doing that can we ever hope to free this country of its current political morass.
According to this story in today's San Francisco Chronicle, "oil company lobbyists have helped tie up or kill almost a dozen bills considered hostile to the industry, including a plan to tax windfall profits and a proposal to regulate refineries as public utilities."
Which party controls the California legislature? You guessed it--the Democrats. The article reports:
Backed by profits last year that ran into the billions of dollars, oil giants like Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co. and Occidental Petroleum -- all active in California politics -- have almost unlimited resources to throw into political campaigns.Perhaps what is funniest about this is the reaction of a spokesman for a consumer group, who complained, "Democrats are supposed to care about people who are being forced to choose between filling up their cars and having more food on the table. It is insane that in a state where Democrats control both houses of the Legislature, they can't attack this issue." The naivete that lies behind that statement speaks volumes.
Chevron, for example, spent $1.2 million in political contributions in 2005 and $1.7 million in 2004. So far, the company has donated $57,000 this year to candidates but has put an additional $4 million into an effort to help defeat a ballot measure that would tax oil production to pay for alternative-fuel programs.
Combating this kind of faulty belief that the Democrats speak for the common folk, rather than for big business, is the biggest challenge facing the left today. When a consumer advocate who is presented with a clear example of how the Democratic party favors big business over the interests of consumers simply tries to resolve this discrepancy between expectation and reality by declaring it "insane", we can see that we have a long way to go.
The task facing the left is clear--we must convince people that the Democratic Party is simply one of the two parties of the duopoly that governs on behalf of the capitalist ruling class. Only by doing that can we ever hope to free this country of its current political morass.
Not bloody likely when we don't have the common sense that peasants of pre-industrial France did.
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4:43 PM
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