BY SHARON MARTIN
What do you really know about your representative in Congress? Does he listen to you so he can represent your needs and concerns? Does she consider all her constituents or just the ones she must please to refill her campaign war chest?
Who stands to win or lose when any one of your public officials is elected? What does your $25 campaign donation buy? How does it weigh against a million dollars? A corporation doesn’t give a million dollars to a candidate unless it expects to get more than a million dollars back. Businesses aren’t giving away money out of the goodness of their corporate hearts.
A recent poll suggests that a majority of Americans believe that the United States is on the wrong track. America got on the wrong track when it became all about money instead of the people’s best interest.
Politicians illustrate their belief that money trumps people in their opposition to health care reform. They protect corporate profits although illness robs the nation of productivity.
But who needs healthy workers when the jobs can be sent to other countries?
Our representatives let us know where they stand when they say that public education costs too much.
The Oklahoma Legislature cut funding for GED programs and alternative education then passed a voucher bill designed to give corporations access to the remaining public education dollars.
Based on lessons from corporate healthcare, don’t expect corporate education to be less expensive.
Abraham Lincoln remarked that God must love poor folk because he made so many of them. Our elected officials take a different view of the poor and needy.
Gov. Mary Fallin repeated a tired old line: “I don’t know about you,” she told a group in Tulsa, “but I’ve never been offered a job by a poor person.”
It may be rich people’s money driving her campaign, but it is poor people’s votes that got her elected. And public servants, our governor included, are supposed to serve the needs of every citizen.
It is probably too much to ask politicians to wear the logos of their corporate sponsors on their sleeves, but they should be able to answer any voter who asks, “Who are the Top 10 contributors to your campaign?” Those contributors will be driving the Congressional bus, loading it with bills that benefit their companies and causes.
If a candidate refuses to say who owns her, she doesn’t deserve your vote. And if she says it’s the people’s business she cares most about, it’s probably a good idea to question her grasp of the truth.
– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
