Ed Huntress wrote:
"David R.Birch" wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:
"David R.Birch" wrote in message
There's that, I guess. OTOH, if they B&Cs want to get into serious
illegal bucks, what better path than politics? It's not just Illinois,
Louisiana and Joisey, after all, there are opportunities everywhere.
What's better? Drugs. Prostitution. Numbers.
AT least these are more respectable than politics.

As I said, you have a bleak outlook.

Sometimes. I think the US peaked around 1968, downhill since then. We
approach the end of a Noble Experiment in republican democracy, one
that didn't survive the ability of the people to vote themselves
wealth from the public coffers.

Hell, they could even get into finance.
I doubt there are as many openings available as a year ago. Lots of
unemployed brokers, I'll bet.

Ten years ago, one of those guys could have been Obama.
Pffffht.
? Tell me why not.

You made the claim. Tell me why.

Because it isn't really about wealth, it's about power, and to those
who crave it, left/right is irrelevant.

I wonder if the Reps could have offered a better piece of the action. He
is an Illinois politician, after all, smart enough to be more careful,
so far. As far as we know.
That's a pretty bleak outlook, David.
A common reaction to my quest for realism. I don't expect much of Dems or
Reps. Up here in Wisconsin, we find Illinoisances amusing. Our political
corruption is at a much lower level and they tend to get caught before
they get far.

David

For all the annoyance and frustration we feel over political corruption,
most of it, added all together, hardly makes a blip on the money meter. A
few days in Iraq probably wastes more money than all of the political
corruption does in a month.

Spends it, yes, wastes it, maybe. Power over there is big stick power,
when we bring our stick home, the power will go to whoever does a
better job of uniting the conservative elements of Islam toward Jihad.
Our blundering about in centuries old conflicts only postponed that,
if Bush & the Pentagon had listened to the State Dept, Iraq might
still be a prosperous nation allied with the West. As it is, the
members of the EU are already finding their Islamic minorities
unwilling to assimilate and asserting the right to impose Sharia in
their communities. BTW, did you know there's a LARGE mosque going up
in central Köln with a minaret that will be taller than the Dom?

Nevertheless, corruption undermines the whole system, leading to the kind of
cynicism you've expressed in the last couple of posts. The trick is to keep
your eye fixed on what you say in your last paragraph, which is to keep up
your quest for realism. It's the way to go.

If I were cynical, instead of realistic, I'd be a LOT more negative.
I'm not sure how we can return to a time when communities were small
enough that politicians couldn't get away with much since everybody
knew what they were doing. I know that our country was started by
people who expected citizens to be better than people really are,
something shared by the current version of the Left. Progressives?
Right, cue sound of Fighting Bob Lafollette spinning in his grave.

David