Rising up inside the pay-to-play system of Chicago politics, creates a sense of normalcy and acceptance in the practice of quid pro quo. Blago recognized the opportunity of getting something for the vacated position of Obama’s Senate seat as natural as the real estate broker recognizes the value of serving on the County Planning Commission.
Most of us might think of these situations as examples of corruption and fraud, but a politician sees them as natural as we would think of a stock tip, buying the boss’s lunch, making a business referral, getting a client good seats at the game, telling your mate how good she looks, saying please and thank you.
But, just like Mexican families wait their turn for Dad to get that Federale job with a paid vacation and la mordida, Chicago politicians watch as their mentors do favors, trade access, and provide for those who help them in the tradition of Mayor Big Bill Thompson with his friend Al Capone. Both see it as a fact of life, a tradition, and a business model - surely not anything to be ashamed about - nothing unethical or illegal, or out of the ordinary. It’s how government works.
Another example is from the next biggest city in America with the actions of Anthony Weiner. What he did on Twitter was just weird and he probably knew it was wrong and got his thrill from it being so. What he had no compunction about was lying to just about everybody in American and not recognizing the evil in doing that. As a child of New York politics, he, like Blago, saw no wrong in doing the simple, natural act of lying to the public, something on which he was weaned and raised.
The act of lying to a politician feels as innocent and routine as a waitress clearing a table, a mechanic sorting his tools, an engineer doing a stress analysis, a clerk balancing his drawer, a realtor putting out open house signs - just part of the job.
Whenever has a politician gotten anywhere by telling the truth - how many have been elected by saying that they were going to make backdoor deals, waste money, lavish themselves, take and give bribes, accept money for favorable legislation, use government property to take vacations and support their private businesses, establish networks to provide for them after they are discovered?
Weiner was a liar long before the scandal. He, along with the others in his ecosystem, have been and still are being rewarded for their lies with money and satisfied ambition. Why would he think that it would ever change? Does a fish know he’s wet?
Weiner and Blago are the just the tip of the boil - the ugly, visible, painful part of a smelly, pus-filled core that just keeps getting bigger and never gets lanced.
They grow up in this system and innocently believe they are doing nothing wrong. You can’t really fault them any more than you can fault your pet mountain lion for scratching your face off, and the system will never change.
Just keep this in mind when you fall into following one of these people believing that they can and are in it to save the country, end poverty, improve the economy, provide promised services, create jobs, or insure fairness and justice. Also keep it mind when they offer to develop a helpful new government program.
They are lying to you, they know it, they know it’s easy to get away with it, they have no respect for your blind belief in them, and they see no evil in their actions. They are there to use the power you loaned them and the money they take from you to enrich themselves.
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