Conservative

By John Fay

In 1856, Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was descending the podium after giving a speech denouncing the “rape of Kansas” by pro-slavery advocates in the United States. He was suddenly brutally attacked by Congressman Preston Brooks, who was enraged by his comments. The congressman beat Sumner with a cane so severely that the senator spent nearly a decade recovering. Brooks was re-elected to Congress that fall, and the sympathetic people of South Carolina sent him new canes. The most important warning to draw from this story is that Preston Brooks was not acting in contravention of the voters’ desires, but his actions were endorsed and applauded by his constituents.

Rod Blagojevich has this in common with Brooks: in both cases, the people who elected them turned a blind eye to their criminal actions until they ended in national tragedy. In Brooks’ case, the incident fueled the start of the Civil War; in Blagojevich’s case, it ended in a bizarre senate-seat bribery scandal. I guess this time we got off lucky.

I want to emphasize this point because I think it is an integral part of the lesson we will take away from the sordid Blagojevich affair — that of civic responsibility. Rod Blagojevich had been under investigation for criminal dealings since 2005. His connection to corrupt businessman Tony Rezko is well known. He was irascible, arrogant and crooked, and the people of Illinois re-elected him nonetheless in 2006.

Now it’s not the Illinois voters’ responsibility that Blagojevich is a crook, but they do bear responsibility for electing a crook to be their governor. I’m not proposing they ought to be penalized for this, but I do think it is important we all be conscious of the fact. When citizens elect immoral people to public office, they do so either because they like immorality, which I doubt, or because they don’t really care.

My personal guess is that we have reached a state of apathy in this country because many Americans have come to believe that any one politician is just as incompetent and corrupt as the next one. Admittedly, this decade has seen its share of political corruption — from Eliot Spitzer and his women to Larry Craig and his foot-tapping. Yet Americans who get cynical about politicians need to remember one thing: all of these people are in office because we put them there. Of course, some people adhere to the famous phrase coined by Baron Acton, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” However, I do not hold to that. It is not as if the powerful have a monopoly on corruption. A child who bullies kids at an elementary school may not make the national news like Blagojevich, but he is as bad as he can be at that level.

What power does is give nasty people the ability to exercise their nastiness to a greater degree. That is why it is our responsibility as citizens to look for leaders of high moral caliber, instead of blindly assuming that it doesn’t matter who leads a state or country. The Illinois legislature is impeaching Blagojevich this time, but we can’t count on that always being the case. If this American apathy isn’t reversed, we will eventually be electing leaders whose failings are far less amusingly eccentric than that of Rod Blagojevich.

Reach columnist John Fay at opinion@dailyuw.com.

Liberal

By Greg Ryan

The political party Barack Obama belongs to, the Democrats, are supposed to be the good guys. But the uber-corrupt governor of Illinois and the maybe-corrupt governor of New Mexico are Democrats too. What gives?

What are the millions of wide-eyed Obama supporters who gave their blood, sweat and money to bring about this bright new tomorrow supposed to think? Is America just some Banana Republic where gallant and rugged freedom fighters overthrow the illegitimate, corporatist exploiters, only to set up death camps themselves?

No. It doesn’t have to be.

In November, a heroic nation elected a new, honest and idealistic voice. A voice which promised that our nation’s moral leadership around the world would be rebuilt, that our constitution would be exhumed, and that honor and integrity would once again ring out from the halls of government.

In a word: change.

A lot needed changing: disinterest in the Aug. 6, 2001 President’s Daily Brief, and the rank incompetence of the non-response to Katrina. What about the illegal, ill-advised and unnecessary invasion/occupation/bank robbery known as “Iraq?” Also, an unpopular favorite today might be the culmination of 28 years of backward, anti-middle-class, conservative economic policy which has resulted in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression.

Snaking its way through the above list like a murky river, winding up through every facet of government, like a trickle of blood from the mouth of the Department of Justice, is the old familiar theme of plain, simple corruption — U.S. Attorney-Gate, No-Bid Contract-Gate, Plame-Gate; to continue would be pointless.

Besides, none of that matters now. America acted on its collective revulsion. Its people stood up and took back their country in one suspenseful, explosive moment. Like when the Rebellion destroyed the Death Star, right?

Well, considering that the pure-hearted hero Luke Skywalker couldn’t have actually saved the galaxy without the help of Han Solo and Chewbacca — two grizzled, murderous space pirates — then yes.

It turns out that Barack Obama didn’t come out of thin air to win the presidency. He was actually the candidate nominated by one of the oldest political parties in the world.

Also a prominent member of that party is freshly impeached Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. The man has used his office to defecate on our democracy and the great state of Illinois in ways that wouldn’t be believed as the irrelevant narrative in a politically-themed soft-core porno on Cinemax.

Worst of all he did it in Obama’s first floor bathroom. Among other ridiculous crimes, he tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the president-elect for cold, hard campaign contributions.

Now that Obama has come out clean, on the eve of his inauguration comes a new revelation. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ran for president last year. He’s also close to Obama. While Blagojevich was shunned, Richardson campaigned actively with Obama.

On Jan. 4, he removed himself from consideration for the post of commerce secretary, a position to which Obama had intended to nominate him. He bowed out because of a federal probe into a possible pay-to-play scandal.

Another quid pro quo scandal could be disillusioning, particularly to all the new democrats, new voters and young people who were inspired by Obama. But hope should not be lost. That same fervor which elevated the democrats to absolute power must be harnessed to excise the cancerous flesh from the body.

Obama will prove smart and honest enough not to personally entangle himself in anything so disgusting. But if he is to achieve anything of value, and if he is to leave any lasting progress, the rest of the party and the government must be kept honest by the only force capable of the task. The American people will have to stay in the game, stay on the street and demand the best of their government.

Reach columnist Greg Ryan at opinion@dailyuw.com.

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