April 23, 2015
David Korten
The Senate Finance Committee has voted 20 to 6 to pass Fast Track authority for the Transpacific Partnership (TPP). Five Senate Democrats betrayed democracy and their constituents by voting for it: Sens. Ron Wyden (Oregon), Maria Cantwell (Washington), Bill Nelson (Florida), Tom Carper (Delaware), Ben Cardin (Maryland), Michael Bennet (Colorado), and Mark Warner (Virginia). As a Washington State voter and former supporter of Senator Cantwell, I just sent her this message:
Senator Cantwell: I have long voted Democratic and have been a financial contributor to your campaigns in the past.
I am deeply disappointed that you voted to allow Fast Track authority to move forward even after your constituents made it clear that we do not support TPP. In your vote for Fast Track you have clearly made a choice to sacrifice democracy and our national sovereignty to global corporate rule. It is a shameful act. We elected you to represent the people of Washington State, not Microsoft, Boeing, and Amazon.
This is a defining issue. In the next Democratic primary I will be putting my effort into promoting candidates who recognize the difference between democracy and corporate rule to replace those who do not.
Just last night in my invited Earth Day presentation at Seattle University I outlined current corporate threats to democracy and the environment—including the TPP. I mentioned that both of our Washington state senators support it. That evoked an audible shock from the audience. Hopefully they will be paying close attention to your future votes on this abomination.
Please. As we go forward, side with democracy, people, and the environment. Restore our faith in government, Congress, and the Democratic Party.
President Obama has trashed his legacy with his TPP betraying of democracy and his base. Don’t trash yours.