No, this piece is not about pork barrel politics. Rather, this piece is about the power of people to affect the status quo. The title of this piece came from an exhortation of my college football coach. He used to yell it at us linemen when we were in the trenches far away from the glamour doing the dirty, necessary work of football. I think this little saying is appropriate in the wake of the Iowa Caucuses last night.
I don’t mean to endorse a single candidate. Rather, I endorse a platform, and last night in the guise of a few candidates, I saw that platform win.
I believe that we must put people and their needs in front of corporations and their special interests. I believe that corporations can be a powerful tool for the betterment of society, but they must be brought to heel. When corporations have more rights than regular people, something is seriously wrong, and it must be changed. We are at this point in this country. Corporations have more rights than people. That is wrong, and it is time to elevate the place of the American people in their government.
With these thoughts in mind, I saw three candidates who, in their own ways, are advancing people focused visions of government succeed yesterday. Barack Obama, who is known for being the "Candidate of Change", the Audacity of Hope, and for raising money from many, many small donors rather than corporate lobbyists won the Democratic Caucus. John Edwards, who has been the most outspoken on the need to fight the corporate interests to advance the needs of common working people, came in second in the Democratic Caucus. On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee, an economic populist, won the Iowa Caucus despite being outspent by a margin of 20-1.
I am encouraged by last night’s events. I realize, though, that last night was just the first round. The Corporatocracy will now unleash its huge resources at the American People. We can prevail, but we must prepare ourselves to do that which needs to be done. We must organize, we must make those phone calls, we must knock those doors, and we must write those letters to the editor for those candidates that support people powered politics. To those that are ready to take these steps, I say, "Dig! Dig! Little Pig! Root Hog! Or Die!