Just to follow-up on my last post, take a look at this ad Jeff Merkley aired in the stretch run of his campaign for Senate:
He criticized Gordon Smith for supporting "a trillion-dollar blank check for Wall Street." His ad insists Merkley "says no bailouts until CEO bonuses are cut and middle-class taxpayers are protected." In his official campaign statement about the bailout, he said "I believe it is just wrong to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money to bailout the very Wall Street financiers who created this crisis." For these reasons, he praised Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden for voting against the bailout.
Weeks after airing this ad in Oregon, Jeff Merkley voted yesterday to release the second-half of the $700 billion bailout that just weeks ago he said was "just wrong." He cast this vote despite there being no legislative language in the bill restricting CEO bonuses, despite the fact that the congressional oversight panel and the GAO has said taxpayers are likely not being protected. He cast this vote even as Wyden once again (fortunately) voted against it.
I point this out not to pick on Merkley - I sincerely have high hopes for him, and was an outspoken advocate of his candidacy. I point it out to show exactly what sows cynicism in the public and in the activist class.*
When politicians campaign on populist themes, and then weeks later quite literally vote for the bills they attacked, it makes a mockery out of our democracy. It tells the American people that those representing us think representative democracy - with its campaigns, and promises to voters - is a laughingstock. And what we end up getting are policies that turn our economy into a laughingstock whereby those at the top guffaw their way to the bank, while the rest of us are the butt of the joke.
And so the reason to be disgusted with this kind of vote - whether it comes from Merkley, the Udall brothers or anyone else - has as much to do with the bailout being awful policy as it does with leaders defiling the very political process they are a part of. When that happens thousands of times over the course of many years (as it has in this last decade), it sows the kind of deep cynicism that erodes the public's foundational confidence in its own government.
* I also think it's worth noting that what sows the opposite of cynicism is when politicians actually follow through on their campaign themes. As just one example, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen campaigned against the bailout as a candidate, and voted against it today. You see, selling out doesn't HAVE to always happen - it's an unfortunate choice that some politicians make. And if we don't hold them accountable, then it's true: the more things change, the more things stay the same.
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