Pay to play
"The Clintons have made it very clear that, in the political world, no dalliances are allowed. There is zero tolerance for that,'' Huffington laughed. "It's sheer loyalty versus sheer fear.''
And it's reinforced, she said by the "constant e-mails being sent out about the senator's poll numbers, along with the implication that 'if you give any money to anybody else, you're on the outs.' And that when she is the nominee, and when she's the president, she will remember."
A veteran California Democratic campaign strategist -- speaking only on condition of anonymity because of clients he represents -- agreed.
The message from the Clinton campaign, particularly its chairman, Terry McAuliffe, has been blunt, the strategist said, "that you're with us or against us. This isn't one of those races that you can max out (in contributions) to all the candidates. The message from Team Hillary is: We're ahead, we're going to be the nominee -- and we will remember who our friends are.''
But Chris Lehane, the White House spokesman for Bill Clinton, said remembering who your true-blue friends are is a must for a political winner.
"I think history is pretty clear that those folks who are loyal to the Clintons find the loyalty is really reciprocated -- and that is one of the reasons why so many people have stuck with them for so long,'' he said. "They really do respect and appreciate it when someone is loyal, and that manifests itself in many ways ... that is what good politicians do.''
Here we have an admission from a Clinton operative that the Democratic Party, not to mention our political system as a whole, has a deeply ingrained system of trading favors with those who give money to the campaign. It is a system of pay to play--and everyone knows it.
This, in a nutshell, illustrates why the Democratic Party cannot and will not be a progressive political force. Its ties to the corporate and wealthy interests that finance its campaigns is plain for all to see. One can try to excuse the Democrats by saying that it is the money-dominated system of campaign finance that forces them to behave in this way. But it doesn't really matter what their reasons are for their pay-to-play mentality. Regardless of why they do it, the fact is that they do it. And they all do it--everyone from Nancy Pelosi to former California Governor Gray Davis have invested great efforts towards cultivating close relationships with wealthy and corporate donors. The Clintons were clearly tied to corporate interests throughout Bill Clinton's tenure in the White House. That's life under the Democrats.
The point is simply this--to expect the Democrats to be a progressive political force in these conditions is clearly a pipe dream. They are beholden to the wealthy and to the corporate ruling class in this country. The fact that Democratic operatives like Chris LeHane admit that pay to play is a reality within their party and within our political system only serves to bolster this point. What we need is to change the system--and that is not something that Democrats are going to push for.
