(An independent voice in the legislature would certainly help change the game, and the game is rigged. Luckily there are strategic entry points — like the low ballot access threshold for State Rep. seats. If only there were an organized force to take advantage… – promoted by eli_beckerman)

If you ever had any illusions that you live in a democracy, the testimony at the DiMasi trial should lay them to rest.  The trial is trying to decide if DiMasi goes to prison.  But as State House News reporter Kyle Cheney noted “It was the rare moments of agreement between prosecutors and defense attorneys that were often the most jarring: If you want to win the speaker’s ear, no matter how worthy the cause, hiring a well-connected lobbyist is a must. If the speaker wants something in the budget, it will appear in the budget – or in a bond bill, or in a supplemental spending bill – Ways and Means Committee be damned.”

So that representative you send to Beacon Hill to represent you is really just a token presence.  Those committee hearings are just for show.  It’s the Speaker – who has never received more than 1 percent of the statewide vote  – who will decide what legislation moves forward and what will die.  It’s a recipe for corruption.  It’s a prescription for crippling the full and open debate that is so important to democracy.

Senator Scott Brown recently got press attention when he said that the insider government is aided and abetted by one party rule in Massachusetts.  He’s right.  But he then implied that electing more Republicans would fix things. That’s a questionable premise.  If you have a Democratic Party that is cutting deals with for-profit businesses behind closed doors, the solution is not to elect Republicans who are even more dedicated to helping corporate lobbyists influence public policy.  

A better solution is to elect some legislators who haven’t taken the kind of corporate payoffs that Scott Brown is busy stuffing into his campaign warchest.  We need a few legislators from a clean money party – like the Green-Rainbow Party – that doesn’t let its candidates take corporate payoffs.  Then maybe the longsuffering taxpayers would finally have a voice in the halls of power.