POLITICAL CORRUPTION, IT’S HERE, IT’S THERE, IT’S EVERYWHERE!

POLITICAL CORRUPTION, IT’S HERE, IT’S THERE, IT’S EVERYWHERE!

(Steven Greenhorse, Paul Courson, Louis Lerner)

(Napp Nazworth, Christian Post Reporter, William M. Windsor)

(Huffington Post, Carl Bernstein, Lawrence Lessig, Daily Beast, Frazer Chronicle)

The government of the United States of America is the federal government of the republic of fifty states that constitute the United States, as well as one capital district, and several other territories. The federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executive and judicial, whose powers are vested by the United States Constitution in the Congress, the President, and the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, respectively. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by acts of Congress, including the creation of executive departments and courts inferior to the Supreme Court.

There are however flaws in the creators of the rules, regulations and the laws that were established to govern the citizens of the republic of the United States. Those flaws, my friend, they’re as obvious as the nose on your face, the rules, regulations, laws and stipulations that were enacted to do the business of governance were devised and crafted by humans…..and humans, inherently are flawed. Without exception each rule or regulations that were meant to govern can be manipulated by manipulative people.

Almost without exception the framers of the constitution were brilliant in how they wanted the document interpreted by future generations of citizens, well after they were gone from the earth. It was understood by these founding fathers that there be rules to live by, every society of people needs these rules, regulations and laws, and the duty fell to the legislative branch of our government, Congress.

The success of the United States democracy depends on a system of checks and balances. These checks and balances are designed to disperse and constrain power in order to maintain the desired balance between the three of the three branches. However, over time, the checks and balance system that has been in use has been gradually corrupted, it would seem as if our economic system and our system of government has been lost. Wealth in the United States…..currently equals immense power that no one person or group should have…..because they basically are unable to control themselves or their groups.  

ABUSE OF PRESIDENTIAL POWER, IT HAPPENS ALMOST ON A DAILY BASIS

First President George Walker Bush, and then Barack Hussein Obama, because they’re the most recent Commanders and Chiefs. Bush got us into an illegal war in Iraq among other things and Barack Obama because he didn’t give up the abuses of power that President George W. Bush in a sense created.

These two men and their political parties were far from the first or second administration in American history to take advantage of situations that were pretty unique to their particular regimes. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was actually the first president to exert, and define presidential power in a way that was ground breaking (at the time).

Before FDR presidents were more laid-back in their approach to the office of the president of the United States, there actually had been presidents who, on several Saturdays each month, received guests at the White House with concerns or complaints.

Roosevelt was the first president to insulate the office from the public as well as the press, possibly because of his attitude towards is polio, and how he wanted to be perceived as the president of the United States. After Roosevelt, the office of the president seemed to take away some of the controls of Congress, and the chipping of that authority continues to this day.

Illegal declarations of war, military conflicts, interment and torture of war criminals, and his  treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as the confiscation of business holdings, personal possessions, and even bank accounts.

Each president since Roosevelt has abused his powers…..at least as prescribed by the United States Constitution…..and during this process, has watered down the authority and the powers of Congress, one of those checks and balance parts of government that are so vital to the success of our system of government.

WE ARE…..AS A NATION LOSING GROUND

The issue is corruption in our political process, corrupted by the enormous sums of money that are paid to both political parties…..depending on how agreeable elected officials might be to a particular issue, or desire on a specific project. When this happens, and is allowed, as a nation we are corrupted, and our ideals are sacrificed.

The above was the assessment of Senator John McCain in a speech given fourteen years ago as he launched is presidential campaign. “People don’t have to be corrupt if the system that they work in is corrupt,” it perpetuates itself.

Special interests are just that…..special interests, with extremely little exception, special interest is for just that, special interests. They very seldom favor the general public and always make money for a special group of people, usually the elitist of our society.

It’s gotten so damn bad that there is a debate about the meaning of the term, corruption, and whether it can apply to a system as well as individuals. Is in some people’s opinion a fundamental flaw, and continues to this day. This debate has traveled through our court system all the way to the Supreme Court of the land.

The Supreme Court has before it a critical piece of campaign finance verbiage to consider and in the opinion of some Wall Street attorneys, and act as a dictionary in their findings. Let me clear this hub-bub up for everybody…..a system can be corrupt…..and those involved as well are guilty because they refuse to do anything about the corrupt system, and its practices, it’s guilt by association…..stupid!

Status-quo is a study in tranquility, of keeping things as they are, and in a system like our governance process, everybody loses in the long term. Financial corruption or favors is by far the worst kind of corruption (is there a good kind?) It operates on the primes of today, there is no history, and there is no future, there’s just today.

 

EXAMPLES, EXAMPLES, EXAMPLES

Silas Deane was accused of mismanagement and treason while serving as the ambassador to France, he died before he could clear his name…..the charges however were dropped. Conway Cabal and Horatio Gates conspired o remove George Washington as commander of the Continental Army.

Mathew Lyon, (Democrat from KY) was the first Congressman recommended for censure for spitting at Ralph Griswold, (Federalist, Ct.) The censure failed to pass, but he was found guilty of violating John Adams’ Alien and Sedition Act and sentenced to four months in jail…..during which time he was re-elected in 1798.

Abuse of power, of writing or re-writing rules, regulations and creating favorable laws, or simply ignoring the prescribed way to operate as a democracy is bad today…..of that there is no doubt, is it worse than at any time in our country’s history…..only the historians will be able to answer that question.

HAVE A NICE DAY!