When the Editorial Board must dedicate an entire column to the hypocrisy of a United States senator, the U.S. deserves better representation.
Though we know politicians in both parties take immense sums from private interests, we find it frustrating when liberal politicians receive little criticism.
Rising Democrats deserving of criticism who could run against incoming President Donald Trump in 2020 frustrate us even further.
A lot of people took notice last week when Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, broke protocol to testify against fellow __Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
If Booker is to be the man that unseats Trump, he cannot be prone to the same follies as Hillary Clinton.
To evaluate Booker, one should remember the final lines — “Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss” — of the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
In his Senate testimony Booker broke no new ground. Many Americans believe if made attorney general, Jeff Sessions would gut civil rights, fail to uphold LGBT protections and carry out draconian immigration measures.
Conservatives have pointed to a speech made by Booker last year where he said he was “honored” to work with Sessions in a Capitol Hill event honoring civil rights heroes.
Booker did mention this speech during his Senate testimony and continued his concern about Session’s nomination.
Many still pointed to Booker’s past statements as a sign of hypocrisy.
Booker’s real hypocrisy lies in his supposedly progressive politics.
The same day as his Senate testimony Booker joined 13 other Democrats to vote against a bi-partisan amendment proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, that would allow consumers to import cheaper Canadian medicine.
Even Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, voted in favor of the amendment.
That amendment would have saved people money on life-saving medication.
When confronted about his vote on Twitter, Booker said basic FDA standards must be met.
It should be noted Booker received $388,678 from the pharmaceutical industry in 2016.
A closer look at Booker’s campaign finance records shows more of the same.
His top donor is a far-right Israeli group called NorPAC, from which he received a suspicious $158,871 in 2016.
Another top donor for Booker is the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, made infamous by the brothers John Foster and Allen Dulles, who respectively became secretary of state and CIA director for President Dwight Eisenhower.
Through Sullivan & Cromwell, John Foster Dulles secured bonds for companies, such as IG Farben, which produced chemicals used during the extermination of Jews in Europe, within the Nazi war machine.
Next time someone calls Booker a progressive, inform them that he simultaneously receives cash from pro-Israeli groups and the law firm that bankrolled Nazi Germany.
There is also Booker’s forgotten comment from the 2012 election, when he criticized President Obama’s attacks on Mitt Romney as a venture capitalist. He said Democrats should “stop attacking private equity.”
Wall Street rewarded Booker for his allegiance, and in 2014, he was the top recipient of campaign contributions from Securities and Investment with $2,183,820.
Headlines with “Cory Booker” and “2020” are already creeping into news feeds.
If he is to be the heir to the Democratic Party’s neoliberal mantle, we can be assured that the Democrats will not fix their incapacity to serve the people.
