Disconnected
Sep 23rd, 2007 at 8:13 pm by Susie
Glenn Greenwald on the problem with Dianne Feinstein:
As Digby said yesterday of Senate Democrats: “it surely seems true that they loathe the Democratic base as much as the Republicans do.” Hence, Dianne Feinstein funds Bush’s war with no limits while condemning MoveOn. She votes to vest vast new surveillance powers in the President. She defends and vouches for and places blind faith in the whole litany of Bush intelligence officials who have spent the last six years radicalizing this country and breaking the law.
Plainly, Feinstein does not do this out of political fear or “spinelessness,” but because it is who she now is and what she believes. She and those like her are the reason why there is such a gaping disconnect between the Beltway political class and the political views of most Americans.
Most of these political officials who feed off of Washington year after year become appendages of it and vigorous defenders of nothing other than the Beltway system. They are drained of all belief, conviction and passion. And in Feinstein’s case, it is particularly easy to understand why this is so. Her current husband, Richard Blum, is an extremely rich defense contractor whose companies have endless relationships with the work Feinstein does in the Senate. It is entirely unsurprising that Feinstein’s affection is reserved for officials in the intelligence and defense communities because those are her social peers, the individuals with whom her husband interacts professionally and socially and with whom she most identifies.
More than anything else, Feinstein worships at the altar of the Beltway power system and its most revered members. Conversely, she has contempt for the liberal base which elects her and the constituents she represents. She long ago ceased being driven by the political values which serve as props for her campaigns, if she was ever driven by them. And that is the story of so many of the Beltway Democrats.
I remember voting for the mayor of San Francisco in the 70’s. The choice was between Ms Feinstein and the obviously corrupt incumbent Joe Alioto.
My wife at the time made me promise to vote for Diane. Once inside the voting booth I said no way. So Joe got my vote and incidentally he won.I did the right thing.
Unlike Ms. Feinstein who I’m not sure was ever in touch with her constituency and does not know what the right thing is. (Joe did have some redeeming qualities and Ms Feinstein was more than a little uptight ie. self-righteous.)
Good Blog Ms Madrak I always read and never comment.
Maybe If I learn to type… ah nevermind.
So here’s California with two Democratic senators. The DINO one votes to give the AG expanded powers to wiretap. The good one, the progressive one … doesn’t bother to show up for the vote at all. The term “FISA” is not even found on her website.
There must be some kinda way outahere.
¿Feinstein, The New Lieberman?
¿eh?
OK, we know that the DNC and the DLC suck. They are the ones who keep promoting the corporate lap dogs, and keep pushing real progressives, like Dennis Kucinich, further back down the list of people with actual ideas.
Now, the question is, what do we do about this? I don’t know how to get through to any of these politicians. I spend my days writing letters and signing petitions, complete with comments. I live in a rural area, so there’s not much way to be involved face to face, but I do what I can.
Our whole system is in such danger that I worry whether we’ll even ever have another election in this country. Anyone else have these concerns?