Having a Progressive stalwart like Thom Hartmann agree with and quote my controversial article on his national show is icing on the cake after hearing from some who continue to believe in the insanity that is our political system. Hartman was referring to my Daily Kos article titled “Political malpractice kills, and the perpetrators should be dealt with accordingly.”
The status quo, the expectation that using the same rules that are failing would somehow stop the current political degradation, is in fact insanity. I wrote the following in my rebuttal titled “Politicians who lie and knowingly effect laws that kill should be prosecuted” to those who disagreed
It is clear that in a real democracy citizens can vote out their politicians. But Americans no longer get civics in school and on many issues are uninformed. There are institutions like the Heritage Foundation and others designed to lie to and misinform Americans. Many times they are unaware of what they are voting for because these organizations and politicians successfully misled them.
Our democracy can only survive if we think outside of the rails that so far are failing us. Just like the Bill of Rights protects us from the tyranny of the majority, we can have laws that protect us from the ‘tyranny’ of politicians who lie and knowingly pass legislation that harms or kills us.
It is perplexing how many well intentioned Americans, Liberals, and Conservatives alike are so attached to their belief in an exceptional and preordained America, that they cannot see that we require fundamental changes to the American contract.
I do not purport to know how to write a new robust set of legislation to codify acceptable behaviors that make politicians accountable. I do know that we must do it with thoughtful deliberation. And Hartmann agrees.
Thom Harmann Show
“The biggest takeaway from this weekend, for me anyway, was what Egberto Willies wrote in his headline over at DailyKos,” Thom Hartmann said. “And he says the perpetrator should be dealt with accordingly. He says we talk a lot about holding politicians accountable. And I am talking specifically right now about people who are dead in Houston and Florida, in Texas and Florida as a result of climate change fueled storms that the governors of those states refuse to even acknowledge, is happening.”
Hartmann then quoted portions of the article that pointed out that politicians were well aware of the flooding dangers. Most importantly, there were solutions.
Thom Hartman then went on to quote the part of my article that I consider to be a justification for holding politicians accountable like any other professional.
“He goes on to point out,” Hartmann said. “This is Egberto Willies over at Daily Kos, A drunk driver who gets into a fatal collision doesn’t set out to kill anyone. If a gun owner drops his loaded weapon in a crowded restaurant and it accidentally goes off and kills someone, even if he has no intention of killing someone, he is going to be charged with involuntary manslaughter. The engineer who builds a structurally defective bridge that falls and kills innocent victims never intended such an outcome. A doctor who makes a mistake that causes someone to die didn’t do it on purpose. Yet, every single one of those people can be prosecuted for negligence or even manslaughter. Why not our politicians, especially when they do so knowingly. If you can demonstrate, they actually knew that their lack of action would lead to people dying, Shouldn’t we hold them accountable?”
Yes, we should. And until we do, politicians will continue to disregard what is best for the masses and continue to work for their moneyed interests irrespective of the detrimental consequences it may have on us all. Thom Hartmann gets it.