Are we losing it along with our trust in government?
Enough breaches of trust — and I haven’t even started to hit all the scandals out there, by a long shot — and ordinary people will start to assume that the whole system is corrupt. And if that happens, people will quit following the law because they think it’s the right thing to do, and only do so to the extent they’re afraid of getting caught. Plenty of countries operate on that principle. They’re just not as nice to live in as countries where the law has moral stature. When government officials breach trust, they push us closer to that sort of third world condition. Which is why, when they’re found doing so, they should be punished severely.
It’s also why we should try electing, and employing, people with strong moral compasses of their own; government officials who will follow the law because they think it’s the right thing to do, rather than simply to the extent they’re afraid of getting caught.
Good luck with that. Bill Clinton showed that people don’t give a damn, or at least didn’t. Maybe they’ll start to figure out why integrity and probity are important in public officials, but I’m not hopeful. I think that the results of the New York City races (particularly the Spitzer outcome) will be somewhat revealing, at least for that electorate.
Why would Spitzer’s race be more revealing than David Vitter’s 2010 re-election?
If you don’t understand the difference between the two cases, you’re beyond help. Not that I’m a big fan of Vitter, or would miss him.
“Liberals” (and by “liberals” I mean, of course, “tax-happy, coercion-addicted, State-fellating, power-junkies”) seem to have their own form of American Exceptionalism. No matter what the lessons offered us by the experience of other nations, past or present, that have gone down the Road to Serfdom and what Von Mises called “Planned Chaos,” statist pseudo-liberals apparently believe that It Can’t Happen Here. Increase the power of the State ad infinitum?* Let politicians and bureaucrats intervene in the market place in ways contrary to the laws of economics, logic and common sense? No problemo! Dire consequences might have resulted in other countries, at other times, but not here! Not under the rule of the Great Ogabe!
*I’m assuming it is ad infinitum because they can never really draw the line at where they will be satisfied and think enough is enough.
In past times, American individualism would’ve allowed us to work along with our government (that confusingly but effectively reflected our various desires) to interact with both liberal and conservative elements of Egyptian society (but not Jihadist elements) along with various branches of our government.
Now in most comment threads where Americans and Egyptians are interacting, the Americans are apologizing profusely for Obama’s utter ineptitude, loathsome attitudes and positions, and utter disrespect for principles that both Americans and non-MB Egyptians share. However, I’m sure there are plenty of MB members posting at places like Kos or DU where Obama supporters are sharing their outrage about not be allowed to form an autocratic, fundamentalist, anti-Western tyranny and launch a war against Israel and Western imperialism.