Thomas Sowell does it again in A Halo for Left Wing “Special Interests”. Ostensibly, it's about how "special interest group" is a phrase only used on opponents, not friends. But what I take from the article is his comments on how hard it is to unseat incumbents.
Here are a few excerpts:
Publicity is necessary to win elections, and incumbents get millions of dollars’ worth of free publicity from the media. Incumbents can all pontificate in Congress and be covered by C-SPAN. They can get interviewed on network television, have their pictures in the newspapers, and send out mail to their constituents back home — and none of this costs them a dime.
Boy, we sure do see that here in Midland, Texas. The morning paper seems to go out of its way to give the U.S. Representative coverage. My favorite was an article appearing after a train/vehicle accident here in which he said he was looking forward to the NTSB investigators' report. Stop the presses!
Sowell goes on:
Congressional staffs, paid by the taxpayers, are supposed to help members of Congress with the burdens of their office, but a major part of their staff’s work is to help get them re-elected.
Our local Representative told an audience that he has a full time staff person whose job it to get him coverage. If it's still only one person I guess we should feel fortunate.
More from Sowell:
The very high rate of incumbent re-elections, even while polls show the public disgusted with Congress in general, shows how well incumbents are protected.
The media are accessories to this scam.
Yup. But I'm taking Doc Sowell out of context. He is addressing the left vs the right and the main stream media's role in it whereas I'm making it local. Read the whole thing to get the full benefit of his brilliance.
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