News, News, More News
Well, I suppose that's a given, with all the woes surfacing around the world. Here is the USA, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of good news this holiday ( CHRISTMAS) season.
The Illinois governor gets busted. Not a shock ( in fact, I fail to understand why anyone in this country would be shocked ); corruption and politics are not unfamiliar bedfellows. Especially in States where corruption has been so widely known and even expected. Illinois has long been noted for it, has long been accepted as a powerful political machine. It isn't the only one, but of course, as Obama is a product of that machine, this one gets some great headlines.
Politics, particularly in a free market capitalist society, involves compromise. Compromise can lead to deals. Deals can lead to personal gain. To make a deal resulting in personal gain is corruption -- yet, it is common business practice, if one can be totally honest. Why make a deal that doesn't benefit the dealers? As for the political scene, while we might expect that our elected officials asked for our vote so that they might be in better position to serve their neighbors and their country, the reality is that no matter how uncorrupt may be their original intentions, to get anything positively accomplished, they must enter into deals that in the end will benefit someone personally. Why not them?
Much of what we have accomplished as a Nation, much of the good that we have done and that has been done for us, has been the result of this. Does that make it any less criminal? No. But it is reality. If you really sit down and think about it, who in their right mind would even want a elected office if they didn't think they could benefit personally, even though their intent is to do as much good as they can for everyone?
Should this governor ( if you are waiting to see if I will type his name, forget it ; I am too old to do battle with that name on a keyboard ) be prosecuted? Absolutely. His alleged actions were, it appears, strictly for personal gain. Doesn't mean, had he not been caught, that someone of value wouldn't have gotten that Senate seat. Does seem unlikely, especially if that seat didn't offer the possibility of greater personal gain than the cost of obtaining it. I would guess, though, that it does.
Sort of makes me wonder. Attempts are being made -- half-heartedly it seems to me -- to tie in the last holder of that seat to this action. Common sense rises up here; of course there is some sort of connection. What that connection is, at this point, seems immaterial and irrelevant. That opinion could easily be reversed during the next 4 years, if we are paying attention. It could also be relegated to ancient history and stacked along with most hindsight observations as being spot on.
The true test is in what good may come of it; that, only time will tell. In the end, I care not what personal gain my elected officials can obtain as long as we -- all of us -- also benefit. It is the massing of personal wealth, fame, and power at the expense of the citizens that pisses me off. This man is not the only one; every State has them. We also all have the others, who see to it that they only benefit if we benefit.
As for the corruption; it will always be there. The trick is to make it work for good.
The Illinois governor gets busted. Not a shock ( in fact, I fail to understand why anyone in this country would be shocked ); corruption and politics are not unfamiliar bedfellows. Especially in States where corruption has been so widely known and even expected. Illinois has long been noted for it, has long been accepted as a powerful political machine. It isn't the only one, but of course, as Obama is a product of that machine, this one gets some great headlines.
Politics, particularly in a free market capitalist society, involves compromise. Compromise can lead to deals. Deals can lead to personal gain. To make a deal resulting in personal gain is corruption -- yet, it is common business practice, if one can be totally honest. Why make a deal that doesn't benefit the dealers? As for the political scene, while we might expect that our elected officials asked for our vote so that they might be in better position to serve their neighbors and their country, the reality is that no matter how uncorrupt may be their original intentions, to get anything positively accomplished, they must enter into deals that in the end will benefit someone personally. Why not them?
Much of what we have accomplished as a Nation, much of the good that we have done and that has been done for us, has been the result of this. Does that make it any less criminal? No. But it is reality. If you really sit down and think about it, who in their right mind would even want a elected office if they didn't think they could benefit personally, even though their intent is to do as much good as they can for everyone?
Should this governor ( if you are waiting to see if I will type his name, forget it ; I am too old to do battle with that name on a keyboard ) be prosecuted? Absolutely. His alleged actions were, it appears, strictly for personal gain. Doesn't mean, had he not been caught, that someone of value wouldn't have gotten that Senate seat. Does seem unlikely, especially if that seat didn't offer the possibility of greater personal gain than the cost of obtaining it. I would guess, though, that it does.
Sort of makes me wonder. Attempts are being made -- half-heartedly it seems to me -- to tie in the last holder of that seat to this action. Common sense rises up here; of course there is some sort of connection. What that connection is, at this point, seems immaterial and irrelevant. That opinion could easily be reversed during the next 4 years, if we are paying attention. It could also be relegated to ancient history and stacked along with most hindsight observations as being spot on.
The true test is in what good may come of it; that, only time will tell. In the end, I care not what personal gain my elected officials can obtain as long as we -- all of us -- also benefit. It is the massing of personal wealth, fame, and power at the expense of the citizens that pisses me off. This man is not the only one; every State has them. We also all have the others, who see to it that they only benefit if we benefit.
As for the corruption; it will always be there. The trick is to make it work for good.
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