Democracy is Inherently Corrupt

Nowadays politicos endeavor to persuade the Public Mind that corruption is defined by illegality, and that unless a Law on the Books is violated, there is no corruption. Whatever action a person commits, if he cannot be arrested for it, then it does not constitute ‘corruption’.

We can see this most clearly at various Press Conferences where upon being asked if they are ‘corrupt’, the politicos will reply that they broke no laws.

But let’s look deeper at corruption, beyond defining it in terms of legality. Indeed, there is the complication that the very same people who are most suspect of corruption are the very same people who make the Laws. Making corruption technically legal may be their first act of corruption. In order for such Corruption not to evaporate at the stroke of the Governor’s or President’s pen, as they sign new laws that allow themselves anything, or abrogate old laws that once held them to some honest standard, we must look at corruption in and of itself, outside of purely technical considerations of the Law. We need to look at Corruption in practical and moral terms.

Giving it some thought, I suppose Corruption is best and most briefly defined as putting one’s self interest above the Public Interest.

It reminds me a lot of Adam Smith’s basic economic argument, that if Supply and Demand are left absolutely unrestricted, and each individual in Society is allowed to buy and sell in accordance to his own Self Interest, then we will have the Best of All Possible World’s. Adam Smith, a Scotsman I believe, wrote the pivotal economic treatise for this Age – “The Wealth of Nations”. It had the practical effect of destroying law, morality, ethics – indeed, all goodness and decency. It would Monetary Interests in charge of Everything.

At first Politics resisted the March of Money. Laws were set up barring blatant Corruption, that is, it was made illegal to outright buy votes and explicitly pay for Political Influence. But, then as now, Laws are easy enough to get around. Or Judges can be found who simply interpret words in their own peculiar way, as laws only mean what the Judges say they mean. There really isn’t any “Rule of Law”. We have the Rule of Judges, who can be just as politically motivated and corrupt as anybody else.

Anyway, it was relatively easy enough to throw large amounts of money into creating bulwarks for Self Interest within the Public Political Establishment. One could easily enough buy one’s own Newspaper, for instance.

There is also Jobs. Give Jobs to ardent supporters. Promise cooperating Candidates the security of a Job after the completion of their Term in Office.

It all comes down to the basic fact that Money can buy Influence without breaking any Laws.

Indeed, too many Laws makes it all rather worse. We can have what we have Today. Now there are so many “Campaign Reform Laws” on the books, that nobody without extensive legal training can understand anymore what is legal or what is illegal. So what do they do? They bring in Lobbyists – Lawyers specializing in Campaign Finance Law. The Lobbyists know all the loopholes – indeed, it is probably the Lobbyists who drafted the laws to begin with, leaving many a trap door and secret passage amidst the thousands of pages of fine-print that, really, nobody ever bothers to read before they vote on it. So by having an over-complexity of laws, we managed to empower the Very People the Laws were ostensively created to block and regulate. We can no longer deal with the ‘Chickens’ directly, but must submit all our dealing first through the Foxes.

Oh, Money can also buy Organizations. One thinks that there is such a thing as “Community Groups” – “Grass Roots Organizations” and such. But when one looks just under the surface, there is typically one or two ‘volunteers’ who effectively run their Organization. They treat it like a full time job. Nobody asks them how they make their living, but they are ‘fronting’ for various Special Interests.

It can sometimes be rather sinister. For instance, the Oil Lobby hired one guy to pretend to be a “Crazy Left-Wing Environmentalist”. He was given the go-ahead to bad mouth the Oil Companies as much as he liked, as long as his primary message was the demonization of Nuclear Energy. He even went so far as claiming time and time again that the Evil Nuclear Energy Industry was in cahoots with Big Oil. And it worked – a bunch of silly middle class women would be riled up against Nuclear Energy.

Similarly, Anti-Abortion Groups were salted into Catholic Districts, not because the Protestant Right Wing actually cares about Abortion, but because they saw an opportunity for breaking the Catholic tradition of voting Democratic and Liberally.

Oh, perhaps the most cynical ploy by the Lobbyists is the push for Term Limits. The Proponents claim that it would put an end to ‘Professional’ Politicians. That is true. What Candidate would bother putting all the necessary effort into getting what amounts to a temporary job? I’ll tell you who – an Employee of some Lobbyist Firm. In States where Term Limit laws now apply, the Lobbyists themselves are the ones who are running for Office, and once out of Office, they simply return to their Lobbyist positions, and sometimes move to another State where they effectively re-cycle themselves. Of course it never occurs to them to do the Will of the People. They do the Will of their Employer – their Lobbying Firm. Now, we can ask ourselves, did the people who voted for Term Limits really understand that they were being asked to replace Politicians directly with Lobbyists. They thought they were voting AGAINST Special Interests, but had been manipulated in exactly the opposite direction.

The influence of Money can be very cynical and jaded.

The Defense Industry and the Zionist Israeli Lobby has turned Monetary Influence into something of an advanced Art – making institutionalized corruption self-perpetuating. You see, they way it is now engineered, the Lobbyists exert their monetary influence in order to get Politicians to vote for Grants, Contracts, Loans, and Defense Expenditures. Then, roughly 5% of the proceeds from these Grants, Contracts, Loans and Defense Expenditures is plowed directly back into the Political Machine, in order to guarantee the next allocation of Grants, Contracts, Loans and Defense Expenditures.

Really, the Palestinians will never be able to match the influence of Israel until they learn to “kick back” whatever Money is occasionally granted to them by Washington. And with all the Oil Money that is controlled by the Arab World, you would suppose there would be more Influence exercised for the benefit of the Palestinians. But apparently the Arab World is still greedy at the Infantile Level, where they have not yet grasped the only slightly complex notion that it takes money to make money. They want Goodness, Right and Justice to make their own way, and stubbornly refuse to write a Check – to ‘grease’ the tracks of Righteousness. But all the Goodness, Right and Justice in the World is not what elects Politicians or keeps them in Office. As long as the bulk of Campaign Expenditures in American Politics, for both Political Parties, are underwritten by Zionist and Israeli Organizations, that is how long America will be irrationally fixated on never ever saying No to anything Israel does or anything Israel wants.

Well, I have been describing up until now all the corruption that has to do with monetary influence. But there is a more basic corruption. There is the corruption of the Voter’s own self interest.

Remember how we defined Corruption? – pleasing Self Interest above the Public Interest. Well, isn’t that exactly how people vote? People vote to protect their Jobs. People vote for bigger Social Security Checks. People vote to be exempted from Taxes. The People themselves are the Corrupt Basis of an inherently Corrupt System.

Remember Adam Smith and his doctrine that Economic Self Interest, if allowed a free hand, would automatically make for a Perfect World. Well, the same idea was applied to Politics, giving us Democracy. We were supposed to believe that in the Rough and Tumble of millions of people exercising each their own Political Self Interest, through their Votes, that the final Sum would work out to be what was Best for Everybody.

It was a Huge Guess. Democracy was an Experiment. They thought it would work… they hoped it would work. But did it?

What we ended up with is that the wealthiest and most embedded and ruthless factions end up with the Lions’ share of Political Power.

I said ‘ruthless’. Yes, sometimes Money isn’t enough. Look around the Globe and see how often Violence and Assassination shape the Political Landscape. Look at America. The Right Wing didn’t reach its Ascendancy until there had been a slew of Political Assassinations wiping out and intimidating their opposition on the Left. In Israel, didn’t they also shoot their Peacemaker?

Oh, and there is the fledgling Democracy in Iraq, where nobody lives long enough to Run for Office and get Elected unless they control a Militia of at least a thousand well armed street thugs – to guard the safety of their own persons, and to take advantage of any weakness displayed by rival contenders. Then there is also the matter of being able to win elections by killing or chasing away any group likely to vote against you.

But a lot of the Corruption inherent in Democracy is small and annoying in each individual instance, but as it salt and peppers throughout everything and everywhere, it must be holding back and diminishing our Entire World. I’ll give you an example. People can’t jog in this one community because there are vicious dogs running loose. And nothing can be done about the vicious dogs because they are owned by a Voter who had worked on the Campaigns of both the Mayor and the Sheriff.

So the Principle here is “laws do not apply to past or potential Supporters”.

We can just guess what would happen if there was a close election, and all of the Car Thieves, Burglars, Rapers, Prostitutes, and Drug Dealers got together and promised a certain Candidate their full support. In a Democracy, the Law and everything Good and Decent can be effectively done away with by the power of the Vote.

Then there are the Losers. Where the Winning Supporters have an effective Amnesty for Everything, the Losers can be hounded endlessly.

They say that in Democracies that the People choose their own Government – that it is Representative Government. But really, the Losers didn’t pick anybody in the Government. The Losers aren’t represented by anybody. And even among the Winners… we can suppose that many Voters go to the polls because they suppose it some kind of a Duty. They acknowledge that they had no real choice in the Nominations or Selection of Candidates – the Rich and Powerful decide who Runs. So people flip a coin or throw a dart and vote for the Candidate who they suspect will do the least harm.

Its often quite sad. All the Promises, all the Rhetoric, all the Hope. And nothing ever changes.

The Corruption Inherent in the System prevents any real change. Its in the nature of Special Interests to be Self Perpetuating. Influence creates power which generates more Influence.

What surprises me is all the Books out there advocating Change – some Green This or Green that, all the while supposing that it can be accomplished within the framework of our Institutionalized Democracies. I mean, if these Authors are smart enough to write a Book, then they should be smart enough to see that everything is stacked against them. I can only conclude that such Books are the results of some jaded Business Plans that the authors were able to foist on the Publishing Companies. Nobody believes any of it, but they think they can sell books… prostrating themselves before Lord Money.

Maybe I owe Adam Smith an apology. Maybe he didn’t say Money SHOULD decide everything. Maybe he just said Money WOULD decide everything. You can’t blame him simply because he was right. It is just disappointing to find out that, after this Huge Experiment in Democracy and Unfettered Economics, that People are basically bad – petty, small, nasty and selfish.

Maybe when everything collapses, the Space Aliens will finally step forward and put our World under some sensible Administration. Clearly Humanity is incapable of conducting its own affairs… At least under the present circumstances where all of the Power is controlled by the very people who are causing all of the Problems, that is Democracy.