John Quincy Adams

Editor,

For 40 years preceding the Civil War, planters who vehemently defended slavery on economic grounds and Republicans who opposed it on moral grounds fought political skirmish after political skirmish in Congress, the press, and the courts.

That's what's happening now with respect to the stranglehold corporations have on American politics, Americans' economic chances, and American foreign policy. Neither side is about to compromise because there is nothing to compromise on. It's feudalism or democracy. Apples or oranges.

I used to think Barack Obama is just another Bill Clinton: tell the people what they want to hear; give the corporations what they paid for. But I've been reading about John Quincy Adams's presidency lately, and I think the similarities are greater there: an intellectual who lacks the killer instinct, a Rodney King who can't quite grasp that his adversaries have no intention whatsoever of just getting along.

re: "A Threat to Fair Elections" (9/8/2009)