The Chris Moeller Archives

CM Blog 1, Wellmark 0

The executives at Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa know that the caucuses are a terrific news distraction. That's why the Des Moines-based health insurance company chose this afternoon to announce a 9.3% rate bump on premiums. The increase of up to $45 a month on 86,000 policyholders aged 65 and over was approved last week. Why did we not hear about it until today? Hmmm, I wonder. Nice try, Wellmark, but I saw what you did. (And so did the Register. Three cheers.)

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It's caucus night in Iowa and I'm staying in. I see no civic duty in participating. The people in Iowa who tell you that there is are either party hacks, state tourism proponents, or both. (Good god, how can images like this conceivably be good for Iowa?) This is a civic event only so far as certain voting rights statutes have to be followed. Beyond that, this is a political party event.

Occupy Iowa misstepped by not scheduling a protest event tonight. They ceded to the argument and the warnings that protests would disrupt the political process. These are arguments that were made predominately by party and state leaders that fear the power of the 99%. Yes, it conceivably would have been a disruption, and rightly so. I thought that was the point. I owe nothing to either the Democrat or Republican parties. Their electoral machinations should be as fair game to protest as the demonstrations we've seen at party headquarters and at candidates' offices. The problem with our nation's political system is not that Democrat and Republican parties elect corrupt people. It's that two corrupt parties give us their candidates of choice and shut alternative candidates and parties out of the larger debate. These two parties that comprise the oligarchy should not be reformed. They are far beyond reform. They should be destroyed.

This opinion is not born of the fact that neither of the parties represents my interests, though this is true enough. It's that they also actively work to deny access to the national debate to candidates and parties that do represent my interests. The "Commission on Presidential Debates" was begun in 1987 by a Democrat operative and a Republican operative to shut third-party candidates out of the televised debates, effectively ending the threat of an upstart independent candidacy like John Anderson's or Ross Perot's or Ralph Nader's taking hold. Before the last election cycle in 2010, a group of citizens had to sue the state of Iowa to gain the right to register as Libertarian or Green, and to allow even more parties to pursue the same registration access.

Tonight is a rather meaningless night for those Iowa Libertarians, Greens, and the faithful of other parties. Registered third-party voters, as well as the political "Independents" whose numbers dwarf both the Republicans or Democrats in the state, must change their registration at the door to participate in the caucuses. This requirement is really just a recruitment drive for new members that otherwise have abandoned the two parties in droves over the last two decades. It also serves as free publicity and promotion from a neutered news media that plays along with the charade of voter "choice" collectively out of financial self-interest, power-worshipping habit, and sheer laziness. Our paymasters know that the minimum number of "choices" a person can be given and still potentially believe in the illusion of "choice" is two. And those are the two that we'll be presented with in November. Minority opinions are dangerous as they threaten the real power-player in American politics-- money. In American politics, the candidate that raises the most money wins his or her race an astonishing 94% of the time.

Nothing about the Iowa Caucuses needs to be honored or revered. It's politics in cramped quarters so that the campaign money most effectively utilized through television and radio ads, like Iowa manure, can be spread easier and more cost-effectively. Republican caucus candidates in Iowa this cycle will have wound up spending more than $200 for every vote that gets cast tonight. Calling this "grassroots democracy" is like putting lipstick on an Iowa pig. It's a scam that targets a citizenry needlessly sentimental over tradition and long-meaningless state boundaries. It can be called more accurately an "auction" than an "election."

The extraordinarily powerful and effective Occupy street protests in Iowa up to this point have included, among other things, railroading a key endorsement/media event for Newt Gingrich, and effectively shutting down the President's re-election office for the last three weeks of the caucus campaign. A hundred times more than the caucuses, these events speak to the real battle that's brewing in this nation between a disaffected people and its unrepresentative government. Ending the protests right when they would have the most media visibility and national impact was a last-minute mistake. It's deference that a corrupted process doesn't deserve.

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Note about the text above: I have taken to using the word "Democrat" to substitute for the word "Democratic" when referring to the political party. To my knowledge, this is a tactic that was begun by Republican media operative Rush Limbaugh, who is a fat, stupid lizard, but I have chosen to do it also because, like the foul-smelling character Limbaugh plays on the radio, I cannot bring myself anymore to use such phrases as "d)emocratic party" when it is not. The word "Republican" would be shortened likewise if grammatically allowable. In Great Britain, the names of political parties actually tell you a little something about who they are-- Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Scottish National Party, etc. But to paraphrase Bruce Willis on an unrelated subject in "Pulp Fiction"-- in America, our names don't mean shit.

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8:07pm caucus update: The national television coverage is electric. Where is Triumph the Insult Comic Dog when you need him? Or Dr. Conrad Murray?

posted by CM @ 5:37 PM