If you haven’t watched HBO’s documentary The Swamp, you should. Owen Gleiberman explains in Variety that it’s “an expose of the selling out of Washington, and part of the offbeat way the movie works is by cozying up to [Matt Goetz of Florida, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, and Ken Buck of Colorado] and gaining access to the nuts and bolts of their congressional jobs, only to shine a harsh light on their hypocrisy.”
(Full disclosure: My husband and I are working tirelessly at managing the political signs in Kenton County for not only the Amy McGrath campaign, but other candidates including Alexandra Owensby, who is running for US Congress, KY District 4, against Thomas Massie.)
As my husband and I watched the documentary the night it debuted, I was concerned about what appeared to be an almost favorable, indeed admirable, presentation of Massie and his rebel colleagues, Goetz and Buck. These men claim to oppose the endless and perpetual fundraising cycle of Washington – the politics of The Swamp, the special-interest takeover of our nation’s government at the expense of the people for whom our elected officials are supposed to be working.
These three representatives despise fundraising – and I can see why. How can they get the work done that they were supposedly elected to do when they must sell themselves/their votes to corporate donors who fund their expensive (very expensive) campaigns? The key to success or failure in modern-day Washington is fundraising or lack thereof. But these three men supposedly are fighting The Swamp. In fact, last February, Matt Goetz went so far as to swear off contributions from Political Action Committees.
In our work this year, my husband and I have seen the results of money in politics even at the state level. Instead of an even-playing field where candidates pitch their visions to constituents, their plans and goals for getting to the work of the people, they spend countless hours “groveling” (to use Massie’s term) to solicit money to fund their next campaign. They all do it – Republicans and Democrats alike. It is a matter of survival in The Swamp.
Wouldn’t it be nice if all our candidates had a cap on the amount of money they could raise? If corporations were prohibited from donating huge amounts of money that few individuals can match? If lobbyists were a thing of the past? And if all incumbents and candidates were on an even playing field?
But here’s the thing: These three rebel congressmen, who supposedly are fighting The Swamp, all pay homage at the feet of Trump – the biggest and slimiest Swamp Monster of all. According to John Bowden of The Hill, Trump (who swore to “drain the swamp”) has employed more ex-lobbyists in three years in office than either Obama or George W. in their eight-year terms.
Massie’s primary election ad campaign pictured him standing shoulder to shoulder with the president himself. And not one of these three corruption-fighting, Swamp-hating warriors voted to impeach a corrupt president who initiated a shake-down of the Ukrainian government in order to improve his chances of winning re-election.
When it comes to Goetz, Buck, and Massie, all the high-minded, heroic-imitating cheap talk about fighting corruption ends in naught:
Just three more Swamp Monsters talking out of both sides of their mouths.
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