Flickr / InSapphoWeTrust
You can’t run for president as a Democrat if you’re going to take unlimited cash from corporations.
That’s the lesson Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) appears to have learned from two weeks of contemplation after first telling a constituent she might take contributions from corporation political action committees (PACs). More recently, she told a radio show audience that she would, in fact, not.
Harris’s decision reflects the growing movement towards a more progressive, grassroots driven Democratic party.
The current dispute within the Democratic Party is reminiscent of Meat Loaf’s 1993 classic hit ballad, “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” The song title’s inherent contradiction captures the split within the party on campaign finance reform. Will you do anything to defeat Trump in 2020, including taking unlimited sums of campaign cash from anyone offering it, or not?
Philippe Reines, a longtime spokesman for Hillary Clinton, perhaps best encapsulates the “whatever it takes” camp. He came out swinging in the pages of the Washington Post with a salvo to future Democratic presidential hopefuls. “Don’t declare you won’t take money from lobbyists,” Reines exhorted. “Take cigarette money. Counterfeit your own.”
He went on to warn, “Don’t hire anyone who says they’d rather lose than stoop to (Trump’s) level. If you say it, get out of the way for someone living in the real world.”
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