Tags: democracy | elections | money

Our votes don't count at all. To believe that is truly to miss the point...

The only way to meaningfully influence matters which directly affect your life is to be a large campaign contributor to Both Sides.

That way you (or your minions) get direct personal access to legislators and executive branch officials, and more importantly, to their staffs. The only thing our votes do is lend a color of authority to bribery masquerading as campaign contributions.

$100,000 gets you weekly breakfasts with the Senate leadership, always helpful when that useful or irritating piece of legislation is weaving its way through the committees. $50,000 gets you a night in the Lincoln Bedroom and breakfast with the prez in the morning, just to ensure you close the deal without any hassles.

The crass cynicism and hypocracy of the parties' legal wrangling and the banal cynicism of the general public's indifference to either candidate's victory (expressed quite clearly by the 50% or so who did not vote, the author included) reveal a broad, if not unspoken awareness that votes don't really matter.

Can there be any meaningful difference which side wins when both sides feed off of the same clientele? Do you really care? How to change it? Well, that's easy. You need a lot of money.

Then see above.