Politics in disarray from all sides

American flag. Credit: iStock / iStock
The April 22 editorial, “The fault in our stars and stripes,” describes the possible rise of a third party. Unfortunately, in the world we have created, the powers in charge will do everything they can to stop that from happening.
The fault is not in our stars and stripes — it’s in ourselves that we have allowed this to happen. As Newsday’s editorial pointed out, big money should be drained from politics. When it costs about $100 million for a candidate to run for the presidency, politicians are forced to seek donations. Who is naive enough to think that donors don’t expect a return for their money? This return comes from the taxpayers’ pockets.
In the same day’s paper, the disturbing news story “Law firm begins representing Curran without OKd contract” touched closer to home. Newsday pointed out how new Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, who ran on an anti-corruption platform, has hired a major contributor to represent her, without the required legislative review and approval. Her campaign was based on stopping this type of abuse. Did the pressure of major Democratic donor Howard Fensterman prove too much? Will the public protest or sheepishly turn on Netflix and allow this to continue?
Roy Lester, Long Beach
Editor’s note: The writer is a registered Democrat and served on the Long Beach school board.
The deeper I read into the April 22 editorial, the more incredulous I became. The media admit no culpability whatsoever in the present condition of our country.
The media spend 90 percent of their reporting attacking President Donald Trump. Trump supporters aren’t following him because of his personality. We support his policies: higher wages, lower taxes, fewer government regulations, record-low unemployment, and a possible nuclear-free North Korea.
Here’s a news flash: I don’t care about a porn star from the president’s past. Nor do I believe the Russian collusion story.
Our frustration isn’t with the president, it’s with entrenched politicians on both sides of the aisle and a complicit media. Too many politicians are not the public servants they claim to be, but mere mortals who will do anything to obtain and keep their positions of power. Shameful.
Michael Sparks, Rocky Point
Of course “party registrations decline and the pool of independent voters continues to grow.” Voters are finally waking up to the fact that the major parties are two wings of the same vulture. Both are owned and financed by Wall Street, banksters, Big Oil, Big Insurance, Big Pharma, the prison-industrial complex and the military-industrial complex.
Democratic and Republican legislators and their party organizations cannot execute campaigns to get candidates elected or re-elected absent obscene amounts of money. Therefore, on the federal and state levels, every elected official is beholden to one or more corporate interests.
Voters look at myriad invitations to political and candidate fundraisers they can’t possibly afford and feel excluded and cynical.
In the end, who appears on the ballot is up to the party bosses, who — in Suffolk County and across New York — trade legislative seats and patronage jobs like baseball cards.
Since my 2016 vote for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, I’ve eschewed electoral politics. The system’s not broken, it’s fixed.
Terri Scofield, Medford
Editor’s note: The writer is a political blogger and activist who writes about corruption in Suffolk County.