A small bit of my faith in the American political system would be restored if politicians would step up to condemn the atrocious behavior of members of their own political party. A small bit of my faith in the American media would be restored if party-affiliated news media (which is most of legacy media) would start stepping up to condemn politicians of their favorite political party. Ryan Grimm of The Intercept recently shined a laser beam on the disgusting behavior of the family of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin and his family with regard to EpiPen corruption. On Breaking Points, Krystal Ball followed suit.
Meanwhile, Democrats and Democrat-affiliated-news-media are otherwise maintaining radio silence. This is merely a recent example of the kind of thing that infests both parties of our political system. Here is Krystal Ball’s summary of the problem:
Under Joe Manchin’s daughter [Heather Bresch], [Pharmaceutical company] Mylan jacked up the price [of Epipens], locked in a product monopoly jacked up the price of war, and then work to eliminate single pack sales with zero medical justification, simply so they could double their revenue, all with the explicit understanding that for their customers, their lives depend on the product, so they have no choice but to suck it up and pay whatever Milan decided to charge. There are no words to describe this type of exploitative, morally bankrupt and sociopathic behavior. It fills me with pure disgust that is only amplified by the knowledge that this type of criminality underpins our entire healthcare system: Bought politicians, price fixing, price gouging monopolies, every single person involved on the take with the cost in dollars, sickness and death passed on to the most vulnerable among us. It’s disgusting. So next time the media tries to tell you “Joe Manchin opposes the reconciliation package because he’s just trying to represent his conservative state,” do not fall for their nonsense. His motives are just the same as his daughter’s: to protect corporate profits and his own personal interests above everything else. And it’s so disgusting here, Sagar, because you see it all. You see the way that the politician gets his daughter the job. You see the way that he uses his position to ignore when they ship jobs overseas. You see that once she’s in that place, the way that she just exploits people knowing knowing that they have no other choice and explicitly making sure that these customers have no other product that they go to. It is some of the most despicable behavior that you can imagine.
