With the increased media attention to illegal file sharing and the court cases that the Recording Industry has been filing against people who download music recordings illegally, it has been noticed that Obama has appointed several prominent RIAA lawyers to positions within the Justice Department. My question – why is anyone surprised? Big politics requires big money – those television ads that ran for 14+ months of the last campaign didn’t pay for themselves, you know. If you are a big campaign donor, you get correspondingly large political pull. And there’s a lot of money coming in to the Democrats from the media industry.

Even if Obama didn’t accept any special interest money, the rest of his party has, and those special interests shape the party, not the people. Those special interests decide that the party is going to be for or against gun control, corporate taxes, energy policy and national security, for starters. The will of the ‘people’ comes out in things like gay marriage and abortion – things that are emotionally sensitive, and will distract the people from what’s going on. Let’s say this again to make sure everyone is clear: the people have little say over the platform the party runs on. The party establishes what it’s platform will be, and then the people are expected to vote along party lines. Too bad if you’re a democrat who thinks gun control is a bad idea, or if you’re a republican who is in support of gay marriage.

Time to get back off my soapbox.