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U.S. political system broken

This week, I went to a Will Ferrell film — The Candidate — and came away equally amused and embarrassed by some of his crude stunts.I also left with a sense that the movie struck a resonant chord about the dark and ugly core of American politics today.
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This week, I went to a Will Ferrell film — The Candidate — and came away equally amused and embarrassed by some of his crude stunts.

I also left with a sense that the movie struck a resonant chord about the dark and ugly core of American politics today.

It’s driven by huge amounts of corporate money. Many patrons supplying that loot are not fundamentally interested in what’s best for America.

They want — and buy — candidates who will pass legislation that’s good for them personally and for their powerful corporate pals.

Ferrell plays a crude but charismatic congressman who has won successive elections by promising voters all manner of goodies.

Then he goes to Washington and totally ignores them, while doing the bidding of his political paymasters.

Until the next election, that is, when he makes more promises that he has no intention of keeping.

Ferrell’s character, Cam Brady, says things that are patently ridiculous.

He takes positions that are wholly insincere, but uses them because he thinks they will get him re-elected.

Campaign lines are fed to him by a bright but equally corrupt political handler.

Between laughing and cringing about Ferrell’s crude antics, I could not watch The Candidate without thinking about candidate Todd Akin.

He’s the Missouri Republican congressman who is now seeking a Senate seat in November.

Akin is a staunch anti-abortionist who got into a huge pot of hot water this week by suggesting that women who are raped rarely get pregnant.

“From what I understand from doctors, if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that down,” Akin said.

His unspoken inference was that if a woman became pregnant, she was not raped.

“Legitimate rape” is the kind of phrase Ferrell’s character might have said in The Candidate when he goes off his handler’s script and speaks his own demented mind.

Akin would not explain what he meant by the phrase “legitimate rape” or name the physicians who alerted him to this female attribute.

But the political intent was clear: he unalterably opposes abortions and especially objects when federal money is spent to procure them.

Women who are raped qualify for paid abortions.

At some level, Akin must have believed he could solidify his anti-abortion credentials and draw votes away from his Democratic opponent with this ludicrous, unscripted statement.

When his comments became an international news story, Akin climbed down without ever properly explaining or justifying his remarks.

He simply said he had “misspoken.”

It’s a meaningless, catch-all political word, crafted by handlers to elicit forgiveness without addressing the substance or consequences of offensive remarks.

Akin’s sole intent was to put an unexplainable gaffe behind him.

Missouri Democrats will work hard to keep that from happening.

From here, it’s hard to understand how any woman would vote for Akin now, or any father of daughters either.

Some will, no doubt, and money will play a big part in how this race unfolds.

Polls this week show Akin now trailing incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill by 10 points.

The Republicans have extremely deep campaign pockets to bridge that gap.

Business interests line up to support them, assisted enormously by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2010.

The high court ruled in the Citizen’s United case that corporations are also people and corporate election spending is free speech.

As a result, organizations called SuperPacs have been created to funnel massive sums to select candidates outside the rules that govern normal campaign spending.

This year, an estimated $1 billion will be funneled through SuperPacs to influence the outcome of the fall elections.

The Republicans, steady defenders of big business, have been far more successful in raising SuperPac money than Democrats.

In Texas, for example, Republicans are so entrenched in power and flush with cash that they can campaign at half speed. Texas Republican insiders and volunteers are now being dispatched to other states, like Missouri, where races are still in doubt, weeks before the Nov. 6 vote.

Let’s hope they are not yet powerful enough to drive the likes of Akin into the U.S. Senate.

The grim political truth underlying Ferrell’s fictitious character however, suggests America is perilously close to that dread fate.

The Candidate, in Hollywood tradition, closes on an optimistic note, with Ferrell’s character seeing the error of his past ways and honestly resolving to serve the interests of his constituents.

Washington insiders and political bagmen will surely bust their guts laughing at that one.

Joe McLaughlin is the retired former managing editor of the Red Deer Advocate.