Money Follows Power

That’s Just The Way It Is

Give the Democrats credit. They saw the Abramoff scandal coming down the road, prepared for it with catchy phrases and moralistic posturing, and hope to leverage the hoped-for backlash against the Republicans for the 2006 elections.

The only problem with this strategy is that it assumes the American people give a rat’s rear end about it. And they don’t. It is entirely possible that they should, but they don’t. And the reason they don’t is enlightening. It highlights a core difference between the way that liberals and conservative view the world of politics and human nature. And it is a sign that we conservatives are more in synch with our fellow citizens.

The average American looks at the Abramoff scandal, yawns, and says “Big deal. No surprises here. They all do it.”

Liberals and conservatives hear “They all do it” and react in completely different ways.

The liberal response is neatly encapsulated in the hilariously earnest Bruce Hornsby 1986 song “The Way It Is.”

Standing in line marking time--
Waiting for the welfare dime
'Cause they can't buy a job
The man in the silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor old ladies' eyes
Just for fun he says "Get a job"

That's just the way it is
Some things will never change
That's just the way it is
But don't you believe them

If one can fight past the absurd straw man of a silk-suited businessman (who is really supposed to represent President Reagan) taunting poor little old welfare ladies, this reveals what liberals think about the presence of “bad things” in the world. They are not a result of an inherently corrupt human nature, the presence of evil, skewed incentives, moral hazards, or any other structural barriers. Nope. They are a result of nasty men in silk suits with bad attitudes. The liberal solution to such things is generally either a) replace those bad guys in silk suits with good people like them, or b) “raise the consciousness” of the nasty people so that they too can become good people (otherwise known as liberals).

In the context of the Abramoff scandals, the liberal strategy is clear: convince the American people that the problem stems directly from the fact that the Republicans are nasty men in silk suits who need to be replaced by wholesome people with a (D) after their names.

Conservatives look at corruption and graft in government, and see the inevitable occurring. The problem of corruption is not one of bad people, it is one of average human beings faced with too much power. Liberals tend to believe that money breeds power, that the accumulation of money is what makes people powerful, and that the pursuit of money is therefore inherently suspect. Conservatives understand that this is backwards. Power breeds money. In other words, the accumulation of power is inherently corrupting (hence Lord Acton’s famous line). The more power becomes accumulated in one spot the more corruption will occur as people attempt to buy access to that power. It doesn’t so much matter if the holders of that power are Republican, Democrat, or the Little Sisters of the Poor. Corruption will follow.

In its simplest terms, the Abramoff scandals represent the conversion of power from Democrats to Republicans. The keys of Washington power are in new hands, and therefore new routes had to be established to buy access to that power.

To their credit the American people seem to get this. They know that Republicans are not any more inherently corrupt or corruptible than Democrats. They know “they all do it.” They think that the best way to handle this reality is that we toss ‘em in jail as we catch them, but don’t spend to much energy on hand-wringing and wailing.

The huge breakthrough will come if conservatives can help the people understand that every increase in the centralized federal government increases corruption. The best possible anti-corruption measure is a smaller, less powerful government. A government with more to sell will sell more. A government with less to sell will sell less.

And that is truly “The Way It Is” and no amount of liberal smug earnestness will change that.

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