Corruption

The Governor of Illinois, Rod R. Blagojevich, was recently arrested. The most brazen and craven amongst the Governor's alleged acts of avarice were as follows:


-He attempted to stop the flow of funds to Children's Memorial Hospital because he did not receive a contribution of $50,000 to his campaign fund from the CEO of CMH.


-The Tribune Company has been trying to sell the Chicago Cubs, but Wrigley Field is in poor shape and would need to be renovated, which is slowing down the sale because it's a considerable financial obligation and renovation is really the only option that Cub fans will accept; replacement is not an option. The Tribune Co. approached the state in an attempt to sell the stadium, and Blagojevich used that potential purchase as leverage to try to get several editorialists that were outspoken in their criticism of the governor fired.


-Governor Blagojevich has the sole responsbility for finding a replacement for President Elect Barak Obama's vacated Senate seat. This has been the number one news item in Illinois for the past several weeks, and according to prosecutors, Gov. Blagojevich was trying to auction off the Senate seat to the highest bidder behind the scenes.


The big question on everyone's lips and minds the last few days has been: how can we stop corruption? When will it end? What can we do? What is the solution?


To be perfectly honest, the solution is obvious, but very few people are really willing to address the issue at the core. Most pundits and editorialists are talking about ousting the entrenched and corrupt politicians that always seem to be at the root of scandals. Some are talking about oversight. Others are talking about campaign finance reform. While these are all reasonable ideas, they are all superficial attempts to fight the symptoms of a much larger problem: the government has too much power.


The whole premise behind government corruption is that the power and the authority of the government is being bought at a price by special interests, the powerful, and the privileged. Reduce the government's ability to reward friends and penalize enemies and corruption will diminish.

The problem with Blagojevich and the rest of the stinking cesspool of Illinois politics is that our leaders are willing to put their power on the auction block and sell it to the highest bidder. Instead of trying to stop the auction, we should focus on taking away their power. The less power that politicians have, the less they will be able to sell it. Any other "solutions" will be vain attempts like trying to keep water from flowing downhill.