Everyone is chuckling about the criminal allegations made against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D). His blatant determination to “sell” the vacated US Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama for value received is so over the top that you can’t help but laugh. Even the Wall Street Journal was able to crack a grin.
Of course, the president-elect had nothing to do with this. Nothing.
But liberals, isn’t it time to look in the mirror as little? If you chaps insist on gathering up 35 percent of the national output every year and running it through the political system, this is what you get.
All that money sloshing around, not doing very much except rewarding supporters, sets up the occasion for corruption. It’s not helping people, it is stealing from people.
Now you might say that to make the United States into a patronage state, where people get their livelihood from their association with a great lord, is no bad thing. Indeed you could argue that the world as always worked this way and always will. Political rulers naturally fall into the role of patron, and the voters and minor party functionaries naturally fall into the role of client.
But I don’t think that liberals really believe that the patronage state is really the highest and best form of political association.
Conservatives certainly don’t. That’s why we are ashamed of the corrupt Republicans who spent the last eight years trying to stay in power instead of trying to reform government programs. And why we weren’t that sorry to see the Republican Congress defeated in 2006.
Conservatives believe in an America of trust and honesty, where government is limited and Americans get their livelihood from serving each other rather than by becoming the client to a great political lord.
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