The sewers of political corruption

Corrupt is an ugly word. It shares a sound with abrupt, bankrupt, disrupt, erupt and interrupt, none of which evoke visions of rainbows and unicorns. It seems then only natural that it should often be paired with politicians. America last month watched how corruption works in Congress and it was not pretty. Rumors of political corruption and payoffs have been rampant for years of course, and once in a great while instances are actually prosecuted. Most of those however, have been individual cases, not the wholesale exposure of a completely corrupt Congress. A second Louisiana purchase, the Cornhusker deal, a hospital for one state only, states carved out for special treatment; these and so many more are rarely so visible.

Some declare deals like these are nothing more than everyday politics, and for years this has been how the system worked. I'm fairly certain this is true, but having these deals laid blatantly in front of the public was not a wise move by the politicians. Everyday people in this country do not conduct their own business like this. It may shock politicians, but honesty in business dealings is, when found, widely admired. There will always be the fly-by-night scammers and those who deal with government (redundency alert?), but there is hope among many of us that those don't become the standard.

Take it just a little further now and consider how political corruption, and big, big money, have affected a major American city. Rolling Stone has a simply devastating piece documenting the story, and importantly, the roles of several of those too-big-to-fail banks. It's Rolling Stone, so expect bad language, but then imagine how much of this is going on in other cities. After that, consider why you've seen so little about it in the national press. Finally, think about whether this is where the federal government is headed . . or have we already arrived?

Birmingham, AL is now on the hook for over $5,000,000,000 (yes, five billion) and that's at the city level. If you haven't read the article yet, you may wonder what caused corruption on this scale. Sewage . . and politicians - how apt.

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