more from Schweizer: Ch. 9: why this matters - “there seems to be only one sure-fire way to prevent the Permanent Political Class from getting drummed out of power: maintain extremely low standards. We have come to accept minor indiscretions, financial malfeasance, and profiteering on the taxpayer dime as regular occurrences. And as those indiscretions and crimes (for the rest of us) mount up and become more common, we become even more tolerant of them.” [151] - a kind of “defining deviancy down” [152] “the political class is able to exploit honest graft because they have been given a position of privilege and power, and they work very hard to persuade us that their well-being is necessary for our well-being. It worked very hard to persuade us that they, and only they, are capable of “running” the country, or “managing” the economy. This, of course, is the classic appeal of the con: I may be a rogue, but I’m indispensable.” – As George Washington Plunkett said of Tammany Hall “At the root of the Permanent Political Class is a profound sense of arrogance. A good military commander should never considered himself to be irreplaceable, but many politicians in Washington believe precisely that of themselves. It is an ugly form of elitism, less overt than what we would see from the royalty of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the Sun King could proclaim, “I am the state.” The modern, secular version of this arrogance is the politician’s belief that if we restrict his ability to engage in legal graft, the nation will suffer, because we won’t be able to attract bright people (like them!) To run the country.” “Over the past 40 years we have been governed by the best-educated political class in our history. Today, debts mount, the financial markets are in turmoil, the economy is in terrible shape – and the Washington games continue. The problem is not a lack of smart people in Washington. There is no “smart gap.” There is, however, a “character gap.” Like the financial crisis on Wall Street, the root of the problem is not ignorance but arrogance.” [152] “The Permanent Political Class tells us they are concerned about financial corruption and financial crimes. They applaud legal crackdowns on corporate criminals and berate corporate executives for their huge salaries and tax shelters. The Permanent [154] Political Class believes that everyone needs to be policed on this front. Everyone, that is, except for themselves. Why did the Tammany Hall political machine gain some much power in New York City? Why was it a dominant force for more than a century? You could point to the patronage system, or the payoffs. But in the end the machine survived because the public came to accept it. New Yorkers came to tolerate the idea that you could use “legal graft” to get rich from “public service” because that was just the way things were done. Sadly, the same attitude holds true today when it comes to crony capitalism. We get outraged when members of Congress or the president breaks the law, but we ignore the legal graft that is far more prevalent.” [155] “As long as the Permanent Political Class gives us what we want, we are happy. This is precisely the goal of Tammany Hall: make people dependent on us. Plunkett explained that the fondest dream of bosses like himself was a situation where “the people wouldn’t have to bother about nothin’. Tammany would take care of everything for them and it’s nice quiet way.” [155] - “Why do the American people feel detached from Washington? Why are they fed up? Why do they feel little connection to their elected leaders? Why do our lawmakers in Washington seem to show so little urgency? Part of the answer lies in the fact that politicians are allowed to operate by a different set of rules. That is a dangerous place for a representative government to find itself.” [156] “The Permanent Political Class is unresponsive to our concerns and needs because it is partly immune to the economic realities the rest of us face. Its business has, in a phrase popular with money managers, downside protection and guaranteed upside potential. For crony capitalists, there is a business cycle, but they control it and can make money no matter how it when it turns. This means socialism for the Permanent Political Class and its friends – and capitalism for the rest of us.” [156] - “The Permanent Political Class offers all sorts of arguments to justify its special status and its exemption from conflict-of-interest and insider trading laws. Members of Congress will argue, for example, that they are required to disclose their financial transactions and assets, and voters can boot them out at the ballot box. Never mind that those financial disclosure forms are often filled out incompletely or incorrectly. According to the congressional newspaper Roll Call, 25% of them contain significant errors.” [156] - “Some people argue that members of Congress shouldn’t be forced to comply with the same laws as the rest of us, because if they were, good candidates wouldn’t run for office. Or that if they were required to recuse themselves, voters back in their districts would be disenfranchised. This is true, in the narrow sense that each recusal means certain voters interests are not spoken for. But the grand claim of disenfranchisement should not be overused. Does anyone complain about this disfranchisement when a legislator skips a vote?” [158] - The preamble to the Constitution begins with “we the people ... Ordain and establish this Constitution.” - “We, the people of the United States, contractually grant Congress its rights. The Constitution is a contract between the people and be elected. When members of the Permanent Political Class use their public office for personal interest, they have breached that contract.” [159]
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 19:39:25 +0000
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