our old friend John Nichols on the line
with us washington correspondent for the
nation the website by nation dot com is
new article who backs the TPP and a nap
to
on steroids well who do you think about
me
John welcome back it is good to be with
you tom
it's good to be with you too so tell me
let's see
who up the hotel for small who opposes
nafta on steroids the TPP and and
actually I i saw a I gotta primary email
this morning
from a tea party group a fundraising
email from a tea party group calling
this
Obama trade 0 yeah now look
this is the the interesting thing I
their are real trance partisan coalition
Steak N Shake
yeah I mean this is Justin Phillips you
know Tea Party nation he's a guest on
our show
regularly eases I on what's going on the
TPP
and you are seeing are real coalitions
I'll the honest right-wingers the honest
left-wingers a lot of centrists who are
just
in touch with their districts in touch
with grassroots america
and know that this free trade approach
doesn't work
it has been so dysfunctional you talk
about timing shop
so here's the important thing is we head
towards President Obama's State of the
Union address
almost every major players in President
Obama's coalition is against
fast track in TPP the labor movement
overwhelmingly opposed for offer to
practical reasons you explain oh well
for many years
the environmental movement groups like
the Sierra Club friendlier
overwhelmingly strongly oppose
progressive farm groups like the
National Farmers Union
family farm defenders strongly the polls
overwhelmingly so and so where does the
president Ernie if he should choose any
state in the Union address
tomorrow night to call for
fast track call for going forward on the
TPP where his
allies well that the unsettling thing
and this is something we
right about this piece is that the
strong support for the TPP
isn't coming from the IRS rarely on its
left it's coming from
corporations from corporate tied in
corporate dominated group
in the one group that has a real network
in states across this country there is a
hundred percent
on board for the TPP and effect is in
fact
organizing on behalf of it is Alec the
American Legislative Exchange Council
sheesh
incredible incredible
founded by Paul Weyrich and her co
founded by Paul Weyrich a guy who said
no I don't want everybody to vote back
it leverage the elections goes up
well as the voter number voters goes
down yeah I think
that's exactly right Alec over the last
forty years has been at the
absolute center %uh efforts to remake
our politics and our government
a reflection at the demands of corporate
power
and it this is much-talked-about in
areas like voting rights where you have
very angry with Alec for
pushing alrighty laws and a host of
other anti-democratic initiate spread
very very evident on issues criminal
justice issues and
the hostess stand against you first what
yeah
yeah but Alex core commitment have
always been in the area
economics yep and one other things that
Alec
it will be doing in fact that they are
doing now he is
asking legislators across the country to
development past model resolutions
they really have a resolution we just
kill in the name of your state that
argue strongly for
transpacific partnership this is a big
deal Tom
because if indeed the president decides
to go forward with a major fast-track
push
there will come a point where a
here the media major media will be say
will host for this use against
at this point overwhelmingly grassroots
group going to be
passionately opposed to it parted the
fantasy
their support for disorder free trade I
will lie in those efforts to get
governors and state legislatures
to big Congress to go forward right
and desist if you already three states
have passed resolutions
yeah I you know I can see it all now
John this all points back once again
to the cancer at the core of american
politics 38 years ago this week
the United States Supreme Court in the
buckley case but the verses Vallejo
said that money is actually protected by
the First Amendment
and even though the word money does not
appear in the first member and
and then you know what the four years
ago last week
they the amplified that much larger and
louder with citizens united but it's
cemented into place but it was first
proposed in 38 years ago in Buckley
now first proposed it was it was it was
you never really said out loud a big way
and and a I mean we can take this all
the way back to 1815 but
but this is the
you know this this we no longer have a
constitutionally limited
democratic republic not represent the
democratic republic we have
a constitutional monarchy we've got nine
guys nine people men and women on the
Supreme Court
who with no constitutional authority
whatsoever
establish policy or strike down laws
when bid the opposite of what article
three section 2 says which is that
Congress shall have the power to
regulate the Supreme Court
instead they do it the other way around
and and they have come up with us doctor
not a clear
outta then click thin air cleared in a
bad
the whole cloth that that money is
somehow
protected by the First Amendment
something that no legislature no state
legislature no federal legislature has
ever proposed and no candidate for
president United States or sitting
president as is with the single
exception Mitt Romney
has ever endorsed and
I know you did a great round a piece on
this the other day although you missed
Move to Amend .org which i think is the
most effective group out there working
and what's your idea I think
if I didn't have a min I sure that's for
sure yeah paid out because there is a
group that out
try to highlight a along with free
speech for people must other groups yeah
but this is hard the matter he i mean
this is at this is the core of the whole
thing this is the cancer at the bar or
politics is
is is the supreme court declaring that
the corporation that the corporations
are protected by the Fourteenth
Amendment and that money is protected by
the First Amendment
and the founders gotta be rolling in
their graves and bats bringing us all
but stop
well it is exactly and it made this goes
to the heart of the matter Tom
the founders at their I wisest
were concerned about factions and when
they talk tough actions that isn't what
we understand if action is Democrat
Republican
liberal-conservative good people come
together hopefully based on their values
and our ideals.
what they were concerned about was small
group
phiri very powerful people getting
together
to manipulate the government and
manipulate the government in their phone
interest rather than the interest to the
country
him I magnin where we've ended up yeah
I'm editing a book
on bat very topic right now it was
published forty years ago by
dot dancer some who teaches history arm
I out in Washington State professor
history
and it's called revolution 1800 and
we're bringing it back into print
and and I've been working on for the
last year and
its all about I mean that's what the
election was all about
and and and and K
and and jefferson's this is a true
revolution and it really was
and was about trying to take down
faction although it it didn't
ultimately work out that way but but
yeah the founders understand your
faction was
you know allocate if this is the its
definition yeah
yeah so it so any I was there is anybody
I mean we know modem and another all
these other great group are
trying to get money out of politics roll
back the supreme court by amending the
constitution
is there anybody who's pushing back on
after in organized crime
and the trade issues in general I mean
I'm sorry TPM yeah know you're right
are yes the fact of the matter is that
yep this point it is safe to say that
are we've got the the most effective
pushback that we've seen I want the
street fights
because at the very earliest stages you
have labor
environmental farm democracy human
rights groups
coming together and the Tea Party dolls
best & Tea Party groups
yeah and so there's things happening but
just applied to important set up the
alarm bell
now on what money is doing Ryan Howard
is trying to do
because frankly that he ended the to the
equation
right we can expose but the money hours
up to
I think we get back I i think you like
John Nichols
brilliant as always the nation not thank
you john
thank you tom
