Bob Herbert On The Corporate Sleaze And Bribery That Rules A Massively Corrupt Washington Political Machine
Sleaze is a way of life for bureaucrats in any society. It always has been. For those who believe politicians used to be of noble virtue, think again. The only thing that has kept the effects of political bribery out of many households was the limited scope of the federal government. Now with Washington political idiots sticking their fingers in everything, we see endless examples of fraud and corruption.
It’s not in any history book, mostly because history books are cleansed accounts of history approved by government bureaucrats, but bribery of public officials was legal for approximately the first one hundred years of this country’s existence. You read that right. If you had the dough, it was perfectly legal to go down and write your favorite politician a check and place him on retainer as your personal flunky for hire.
Politicians used to pump corporations and private interests for legalized bribery and the law supported this behavior. Legalized bribery was outlawed in the mid 1800s. Judges were exempted. And I believe that has some plausibility behind the Supreme Court’s corporate personhood ruling soon after bribing Congress became illegal. In other words, how does one bribe a politician when the law now prevents it? Well, how about bribing a judge to give corporations the rights of persons so that they can donate legally to endlessly corrupt politicians? That works. And I suspect that is behind Corporate Personhood in America. Fraud. Corruption. Bribery.
So now we see a Washington which looks eerily similar to that when bribery was legal in the United States. All because anyone with a paycheck now has the rights under the law to bribe our government. A government that is selling out the American people at any chance it gets.
If there is a hell, most politicians are going to find a way to end up there.
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