boyfromks
AP Euro history
09 August 2003 6:53 P.M.
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So, there has been stuff in the news recently about how the Bush administration is going about raising obscene amounts of money for his reelection campaign. Basically, to maximize the number of people giving the maximum amount of $2,000, big donors compete against each other to see how many other $2,000 donors they can bring in. If you bring in enough, you get to go to a special BBQ in Crawford, TX for face time with the president.

I've refered to the prez as King George many times, and in this case, it's even more appropriate. Isaw a story about this on one of the cable news channels and I immediately thought, "this is simply tax farming!" Tax farming is how most monarchs would gather revenue in the past. A certain tax was levied, and to make sure the collector did their job correctly, they got to keep whatever extra they collected. Kings would charge for these offices upfront to gather revenue immediately, as well as in the future. Thus, bureaucracies were staffed by people that could afford them (or inherit them) rather than the best qualified. This is basically what Bush is doing with these fund raisers.

S. heard my comment and extended it evern further, noting that the point of the fund raising was to get face time with the prez, which is totally 17-18th century French court politics. Back then, politics was run by and fore the enrichment of a small elite. The masses were disenfranchised and lots of pointless colonial wars were pursued.

Sounds a lot like today.
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