Recent opinions and stories in The Columbian ask why Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, has not scheduled town hall meetings and why President Obama selected GE CEO Jeff Immelt for “jobs development.” I am convinced that politicians don’t need to listen to us any longer. They know that hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on future elections (thanks to our U.S. Supreme Court), and those dollars will be spent on media-based propaganda and brainwashing.
All these lies will flourish under free speech protection, and we will believe them after we hear them enough on radio and TV. It worked better than expected in the 2010 elections, so the lobbyists and their big money bosses are salivating at the thought of 2012 and beyond.
The media are controlled by private for-profit corporations and they make a lot of money on political advertising, so I think the media will never expose how destructive the system has become to our democracy.
Steve Rapalus
Ridgefield
