by Linda Burleson

Created on: April 13, 2009

A by-product of big government is corruption. More often than not, the right hand does not kow what the left hand is doing. This is true of anything that outgrows itself, whether a church, a corporation or a school. Essentially, the responsibility of the "top dog" is to surround him/herself with trustworthy, dependable people and delegate. As the ripple effect takes over and diameter of the circle grows larger and larger, the tentacles do not stretch far enough to keep tabs on all of the activity.

In a society such as the United States of America, where capitalism is siupposedly the current system of government, greed for both power and wealth has saturated politics - probably power most of all. Climbing the proverbial ladder becomes the end, and the means to get there is "whatever it takes". This includes telling everyone what they want to hear.

There are politicians who go into their careers with idealism in their hearts and minds. Very soon, even at the city level, they recognize that compromise is the name of the game, and little by little principles fall by the wayside. Often they are persons of faith who mean well, and morals and values erode so gradually they do not even realize it. Oh, some are corrupt from the beginning, it's true, but not usually, but eventually most decisions are made according to what is politically expedient. Does this sound cynical? Absolutely! What's not to be cynical about where politics and politicians are concerned?

Television has not helped the situation. We are a people who value youth, beauty and glamour above integrity. If a politician is slick enough in interviews, speeches and candid shots by the paparazi; and if he/she wears the right clothes and hobnobs with the in crowd, they are deemed qualified to make decisions for the rest of us. We have become an electorate of sheep. We do not listen to what is really being said, and we accept the fact that during debates, no one is really going to ask the difficult questions, lest they be criticized themselves for the handling of the format. This makes the voters the problem. We have accepted untruths and half truths that made us feel good for so long, that we no longer know the difference.

At a time in history where there is more opportunity than ever before to be informed voters, most are too busy, too gullible and/ or too lazy. We take much of what is said in campaign speeches as fact without ever investigating voting records. We make excuses for our choices. We live in a republic with the responsibility to vote for the person who upholds our core values rather than who will provide the most handouts for our "groups" or the most loopholes for our businesses, etc. Because we have opted not to be responsible in our choices, we are going to lose some of the privileges and freedoms we are accustomed to. Yes, we are often lied to by politicians, but the information is available to us to figure out the truth. The problem is that this takes effort, and we are lazy. We put into office persons who have knowingly broken the law and chosen leaders by their race. Why, Burris in Illinois came out and said that the person who would fill President Obama's senate seat should be black - no mention being made of being qualified. In the end, we have no one to blame but ourselve for the decline in integrity in politics. Are there any true statesmen anymore? Possibly not.

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