Courtesy of Pam Martens
Robert Schentrup Asking a Question at CNN Town Hall, February 21, 2018
Carmen Schentrup would have celebrated her 17th birthday yesterday had she not been gunned down in a hail of bullets from an AR-15 semi-automatic assault weapon on February 14 at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida by an expelled student who had bought the gun legally when he was just 18 years old. Last evening her brother, Robert, appeared at a CNN Town Hall that was convened to discuss the shooting. He posed the following question to Congressman Ted Deutch who was present at the Town Hall:
“If a majority of Americans have long supported stricter gun control regulations, but our elected officials who are supposed to represent the people have done nothing, does this mean that our democracy is broken?”
Congressman Deutch, a Democrat who does support strong gun laws, told the anguished young man that our democracy is “a little broken.”
But our democracy is not a little bit broken. Our democracy is a wistful relic of a bygone era when corporations and Super Pacs and billionaires could not outspend the average American in elections by staggering amounts of money. For example, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies, gave $16.5 million to support the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in 2016 while it was also the number one contributor to the Donald Trump campaign with $15.5 million. No matter who wins the Oval Office, the American people lose.
The same is true in Congress. If the NRA doesn’t own your elected voice, Wall Street does, or Big Oil does, or Big Pharma does.
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