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In the wake of last year’s election season, many of us have been asking difficult questions about our nation and ourselves. Can we restore a sense of shared American identity despite our differences? Is it possible for the church to engage in politics without getting stuck in familiar partisan ruts?
Underneath these larger issues are questions about the kind of people we’ve become in the internet age. Thinking back on all the tweets, videos, articles, comments, and memes I consumed as the election drew near, I’ve begun asking myself: “Was it worth it?” Once I had decided on my preferred candidate and done what I could to advocate for my neighbor, did all the time and energy I devoted to reading, watching, and responding online benefit me personally? Did it make me a better citizen of heaven (or Texas)?
elizabeth warren. so they re trying to bide their time and all the democrats are focused on the smaller donations because you have donald trump, you know, courting all of these republican billionaires. he s getting a ton of money and building this massive stockpile for his campaign. so you have a bunch of democratic billionaires waiting in the wings. not too many have weighed in yet. tom steyer had a lot of money to spend but we ll spend it on himself. what sort of is that fueled by a fear of a backlash by have you seen that they re trying to get the money. huge money is already coming in on the republican side. so why are they staying away? for the one side, absolutely they re afraid of backlash. it s not a good look right now in the democratic primary to be talking to too many billionaires about year campaign strategy. another part which is a strategic point that a lot like to make, when they talk about the corrupting power of big
government. is there a person who doesn t know that big money s influencing our tax policies, our energy politics? our foreign policies. you d have to be hibernating underground not to know of the koch brothers and their interests in oil and gas, of casino magnate sheldon adelson s determination to get a mideast hawk into the white house. we re all onto it. we know the system isn t on the level. we know we get one vote and the people like the koch brothers and shelley adelson get the equivalent of 100 million votes, the amount mr. casino gave to republicans the last election. do you think it doesn t matter when someone puts money in the pockets of supposedly upright presidential candidates? do you think over the table bribery in the hundreds of millions is less corrupting than the passion of envelopes in back rooms? how do we have any idea what the candidates personal position on new energy source when s that candidate is getting bankrolled by the koch brothers in how do we have any i
former staffer saying basically isn t it great? democrats do have that. the tape is great, isn t it? once it exists. i mean, kevin mccarthy will always have that tape. as long as he lives. that tape will be sitting somewhere between here and mars somewhere and be retrievable and it will always say this thing was political. they re on defense. and they ll realize what was really going on. the tape is great. let s go to the tape. anyway, thank you, zerlina maxwell and john stanton of course and susan milligan, who i ve known many years. what a great person. when we return, let me finish with how bernie sanders is right about the corrupting power of ade adeleson and the koch brothers and the rest of the daddy warbucks out there. you re watching hardball, the place for politics. when a moment spontaneously turns romantic, why pause to take a pill?
it faced the capitol building and landed on the grass. when you land a gyro copter on the lawn of the capitol, you are arrested. the aircraft did not show up on radar, but homeland security said hughes would have been shot down if he had come closer. he was interviewed on a tip in 2013 claiming he was not a threat. the flight on wednesday was not a surprise. he told the tampa bay times about the plan and let them shoot a video and admits it was a crazy stunt. he said he was willing to risk his life to the corrupting power of money in politics. i m going to violate the no-fly zone nonviolently and i intend for nobody to get hurt and i ll land on the capitol mall in front of the capitol building. i m going have 535 letters