Business as usual in the Windy City, and in America
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News Dec. 11, 2008
I am a little nonplussed with all the brouhaha over the arrest of the
Illinois Governor. Not that I don't think he's a crook or deserved
to be arrested, I am just puzzled as to why folks are acting like the
details from the phone taps were somehow unusual in US politics. How
do people think this country is run? Honestly and openly? Have
people not been paying attention, or is it just the novelty of
actually hearing the transcript of the governor's phone calls that
accounts for the sudden interest?
That is something that basically just never happens in our land of
the corrupt and home of hypocrisy. Evidence of actual crime and
corruption, as opposed to illicit sex by seemingly honest
politicians, is almost never seen in the mass media. The major crime
wave in the US is (and has been for a long time) driven by the crimes
of selective investigation and prosecution.
What an ironic picture US politics presents.
You can get impeached for sneaky sex, but have nothing to fear from destroying the Constitution or allowing your friends to loot the Treasury.
If you are a politician that Karl Rove doesn't like, you go to prison regardless of the evidence of your innocence, but if you grease the right palms you have the right to act with impunity.
Obviously, this particular politician is towards the dirty end of the
spectrum of honesty, but the sorts of things he is being charged with
are everyday, endemic crimes. Is it still against the law if
everybody does it? With smoking pot, yes. With political crime and
corruption, no, unless it is in the interests of even more powerful
corrupt folks to stage an incident.
What an ironic picture US politics presents. You can get impeached
for sneaky sex, but have nothing to fear from destroying the
Constitution or allowing your friends to loot the Treasury. If you
are a politician that Karl Rove doesn't like, you go to prison
regardless of the evidence of your innocence, but if you grease the
right palms you have the right to act with impunity.
Institutional corruption in government is more the rule than the
exception in the world, especially if your country is a reliable ally
of US imperialism. In an upside-down world, up really is down, black
really is white, and honest is deceptive.
