Zephyr Teachout Rocks
This morning on the NYT editorial page, we have Paul Krugman blathering on about obvious things and David Brooks unable to become a socialist because of the cognitive dissonance it creates.
Then there is Zephyr Teachout ripping SCOTUS a new one over the Virginia bribery case:
In its Citizens United ruling, the court gutted campaign finance laws. It acknowledged that American politics faced the threat of gift-givers and donors trying to corrupt the system, but it held that campaign finance laws were the wrong way to deal with that problem; bribery laws were the better path. Now, though, the court seems ready to gut bribery laws, saying that campaign finance laws provide a better approach. But if both campaign finance laws and bribery laws are now regarded as problematic, what’s left?
Indeed.
I can see Zephyr as the next Bernie. She has a rhetorical flair:
We’re not talking about a few ham sandwiches. The McDonnells took expensive vacations, a Rolex, a $20,000 shopping spree, $15,000 in catering expenses for a daughter’s wedding and tens of thousands of dollars in private loans.
and as a Fordham law professor, she can combine it with legal history:
The legal principles involved date from England’s Statute of Westminster of 1275, which said that no officer of the king should take any payment for his public duties except what was owed by the monarch.
Yeah, even the British could figure this out in the middle of feudalism...
Teachout is also running for congress in New York's 19th congressional district, she gave Cuomo a serious run in the 2014 gubernatorial primary (with 34% of the vote) and she is on Bernie's list, so send her some love if you can. And love includes petitioning to get her on the ballot as an independent if you live in the area.
That said, if Bernie manages to pull it out (and its not over folks) he could do a lot worse than pick her as a running mate.
Comments
We definitely
need more people to follow in Sanders path, I hope she is one of them.
Unfortunately, its hard to find candidates like Sanders in the US. Money is so badly needed to get elected that even people who wanted to be progressives when they began tend to become less so just to survive in this environment.
To me that's a big part of the problem. Its hard to find Democrats that are willing to solve the problem.
Another reason for $15
Reducing income inequality is also part of the election funding problem. If you don't have enough money for food, how can you use it as speech (as SCOTUS seems to want)?
The intertubes are another interesting path forward. A lot of the money today is used to buy ads on traditional media. The web has less of that and is more amenable to citizen journalism. Then again, the rise of paid twitter trolls may mean that the money just goes somewhere else without reducing in volume.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Bill Moyers interview
http://billmoyers.com/episode/public-power-can-defeat-plutocrats/
Here's one of a couple of interviews Bill conducted with Zephyr. Sure do miss Bill on PBS broadcast, but his website is still great.
This Alabama hillbilly sent her money.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Zephyr Teachout can't be a real name, can it?
It certainly is a fantastic one!
I feel like I'm constantly sending donations these days, although they are small ones, but since I don't know what else I can do, I'll send her my weekend Starbucks money. If money is speech, I guess we have to use what money we have to have our voice heard.
Yes!
It is her real name. From Wikipedia:
When she ran in the Democratic primary for governor against Andrew Cuomo, Markos refused to support here because they had some sort of falling out ten years earlier. Amazingly petty, wasn't it?
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Is kos that petty?
or was that just plausible cover for following the money...
Indeed. Kos IS that petty.
Seem to remember something about Teachout exposing that he was getting paid by some inside Dem machine operative (someone must have the link from 2006 I believe, which was how I found out).
She was up against one of the ultimate Neoliberal Nightmares of NY Andrew Cuomo (Deblasio, is another faux Progressive though marginally better perhaps, but lacked the courage of his convictions to endorse Bernie after both saying publicly he was a "fan" and not being present for Hillary's official announcement on Roosevelt Island), and with no name recognition whatsoever against the son of a former Gov with tons, and still managed to get about 35% of the vote.
At TOP my mind was boggled that as far as I could see there was lots ot deserved vehement opposition to Cuomo. Strangely though, it wasn't being transmitted into major support for Teachout during the primary a couple of years ago. Another glaring sign of how sold out that place is; that time it was like owner, like minions.
I just submitted paper work to the NY Board of Elections today. I removed myself from Democratic Party and now am unaffiliated. I was considering signing on as Working Families Party. But after their weak-kneed cave-in to back Cuomo at the last minute I couldn't do it.
Her credentials are exactly the kind of progressive platform I'm interested in: Money In Politics being the central issue. She's written what looks like an excellent book on the subject too which I've been meaning to get my hands on, "Corruption In America."
Definitely a candidate to get behind.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
A one hour presentation by her, and an article are posted below
http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/research/cornell-law-review/upload/Teac...
Zephyr is fabulous.
I'll be holding a meet and greet fundraiser for her in June. I met her when she was primarying Cuomo and loved her! I met with her Field Organizer and the Hudson Valley Political Director of the Working Families Party this afternoon, along with my town Dem Committee Chair to talk about local opportunities for her to be seen. She has a primary opponent who is a good guy but he's not the star material she is and she is having some pretty boffo fundraising ala Bernie with no PAC money. I asked how much Bernie's endorsement bumped her fundraising: $250,000 in 48 hours!