[Hac-announce] When Democracy Weakens

[Thomas Platt]

A couple of days ago, I forwarded the following op-ed article by Bob  
Herbert to my high school class of 1957.  If you missed it, it is here:
http://tinyurl.com/6xj463z


In response, a classmate sent:

  The article forwarded by Tom highlights a tragic political reality  
alarming more and more Americans. In July of last year,  Time  
magazine featured a cover and article entitled 'The Best Laws Money  
Can Buy' showing the influence money from special interests (read  
corporations) has on legislation. It's difficult to imagine a  
successful grass roots effort to reverse this corruption of  
democracy. The costs of running a political campaign would have to be  
controlled, since presidents and legislators must necessarily make  
promises to those who finance them to run for and stay in office. Our  
politicians are corrupted by the very system that puts them there. I  
hope someday we won't be faced with our own French Revolution. If you  
wish to check out a brief explanation of the causes of that  
revolution, check out the Wikipedia article below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_French_Revolution. What it  
describes is frighteningly like what is developing here.
Dave