By now, you must be wondering why you're not hearing about corruption in DC from others such as the media and politicians. If it's anywhere near the big deal I make it out to be, wouldn't some courageous politicians and journalists be upset, excited, outraged?
A journalist working the 'national beat' is only as good as his sources, those politicians, officials, bureaucrats with access to inside information. If you're ambitious and aspire to be a celebrity journalist, famous in your own right and well paid, possibly getting to interview big shots on TV, you spend years building relationships with those who feed you information,
There is, of course, a flaw, a conflict of interests, in this. Those feeding you represent a special interest (themselves, their party, their sponsors) and are careful to spin whatever they say so as to support these interests. They get to pick and frame the issues. Of course, a good journalist would get at the truth and publish it even if doing so caused great embarrassment to his sources. Ah well, so the kid doesn't get to go to college.
Columnists are the worst offenders, they're famous for being consistent; you always know that you can count on your guy or gal to slip it to the other party on any issue or scandal. And that is why we read them. It's fun to stay well informed this way, like following the Red Sox, or Lakers. Too bad it doesn't seem to get us anywhere.
All this amounts to a symbiotic relationship between journalists and politicians; they need each other and are careful not to cross the line. Journalists do not want to see their sources get caught; think of how a sports agent feels when his star athlete suffers a career-ending injury.
Those of you who have read Republic Lost understand how the system works, feeding millions of dollars to a sub-rosa system resulting in a corrupted government serving their interests.
An example for others: A recent issue of The Economist dwelt on over regulation in the U.S. It cited the Dodd-Frank bill (re-regulating the banking industry). The bill now sits at 823 pages and most of it is still to be written. They point out that complexity can be an end in itself since it allows for cheating. The Glass-Stiegel Act passed in 1913 to regulate banking and erased in 1997 was 72 pages. (We know what happened next). Messrs. Dodd and Frank both wrote to The Economist, objecting to the article, pointing out that it wasn't them, but 'special interests', lobbying for favors and loopholes, that are causing the complexity.
But there's hope, a growing number of citizens are aware of the dysfunction in DC and that getting rid of the 'Other' Party altogether won't fix it. Lawrence Lessig, author of Republic Lost, and founder of Rootstrikers.org, has written another book, One Way Forward, in which he cites the efforts of other organizations dealing with the problem of corruption, and how we can all be part of the solution. My favorite is http://www.americanselect.org. Check it out; you don't have to vote for one of the two 'special-interests' stooges.
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