Unknown Artist: Legalized Plunderers, from Puck (1880)

" … fly coach with their constituents when on the people's business."

The Muse and I last night attended a neighboring county Democratic Party's annual celebration dinner featuring a visit from our spectacular United States Senator Maria Cantwell. A visit with her when she was visiting Walla Walla in June yielded The Muse a senatorial letter of intent for an important Port project and me an appreciative interest in my Blind Men and the Elephant Book. We attended the dinner in hopes of continuing the conversation we'd started and also to revel in what is turning out to be a genuine banner year in the history of our Democratic organizations. The dinner was held at a union hall, where we learned that Biden's term has resulted in a record number of apprenticeships and jobs. That county's economy's on fire!

We were seated at a table with a couple of former school teachers who retired from the Seattle suburbs and moved over into the less urban east of the Cascades. Chris, the husband, regaled us with the results of his ongoing investigations into what I might label legalized corruption, ImperfectlyLegal practices employed by our current Republican legislators. We're blessed that Washington State features a fat blue line protecting its citizens from Republican craziness. With an all but insurmountable sixty percent majority in both houses and a dominant Democratic executive, none of the craziness witnessed in weaker states has yet to intrude upon us. We're not yet perfect. Lacking an income tax, Washington's remains perhaps the nation's most regressive state tax system, beloved by billionaires and somehow tolerated by the rank and file. Plundered early in its existence, the Washington Legislature carries a long progressive history and, especially West of the Cascades, a dominant union presence.

Our side of the state still tends to elect Republicans to do progressive work in Olympia. They have been generally ineffective. They propose unnecessary or harmful legislation, though that fat blue line routinely rejects their proposals. The farmers who dominate the electorate here grumble to little effect. Democratic candidates offer alternatives to such impotent representation, but tradition limits their success. The Republican candidates, as our seatmate Chris explained, understand how to play a game more naive Democratic candidates don't even know exists. Republicans employ professional fundraisers who know every tickle point in the state. They understand where to ask to shake money loose. Chris described how the Washington Education Association, an organization dedicated to promoting and protecting public education, donated to a local rabid Republican, who the following week booked a first-class flight to Utah to attend a "school choice" convention on the WEA's dime. He flew first class, too, to learn how to more effectively undermine our public education system because of a little twist in our campaign finance laws governing excess contributions.

The candidate may use excess campaign funds for personal expenses. If a candidate wants to purchase an upgrade for an airline flight, it's ImperfectlyLegal to use some of their "excess" campaign funds for that purpose. Every cup of coffee consumed with a lobbyist or constituent shows up on the candidate's personal expense report, complete with an accompanying mileage reimbursement at the sanctioned rate of 67 cents per mile for business purposes. A legislator can easily transform their part-time legislator job into a full-time, well-paying position while enjoying a better lifestyle than the people probably envisioned. The Democratic candidates do not seem to have learned these simple lessons and struggle to raise money the old-fashioned way: from actual constituents. They naively engage in retail politics while their opponents rarely show up at public forums, neglect to come into close contact with their constituents, and still manage to win elections wholesale, sixty/forty. It might be that the people don't know how this scam works, either.

Our legislature could correct this rather flagrant oversight. It could command that any "excess" campaign funds be donated to some charity rather than used to turn candidates into high-class welfare queens. Our ineffective Republican legislators championed a Parent's Bill of Rights and other culture war distractions while steadfastly, first and foremost, upholding a long tradition of ImperfectlyLegal corruption. When Lincoln (a Republican, by the way) called for "a more perfect union," he was calling for our continued insistence upon rooting out just this sort of stubbornness. We improve our lot first by noticing our shortfalls, with particular sensitivity toward spotting ingrained corruption. In a more perfect world, the public would fund campaigns to recognize the personal contribution every candidate must make, even to attempt to serve the public. We'd severely limit contributions and expenditures and mandate that any excess be put toward some public goodness. We might even insist that the people's representatives fly coach with their constituents when on the people's business.

©2024 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Grace, #PureSchmaltz