Corruption is ubiquitous and has been since the beginning of time. The source of our corruption is man’s inclination to “sin”. The gift of FREE WILL—”liberty” is a double-edged sword. Our founding Fathers understood this. Their understanding of the downfalls of many ancient societies—The Greeks and Romans, and the ancient Hebrew dynasties—many of them theocracies, all ended because of the corrupt nature of leaders and an accepting populace. Each corrupt activity has a natural tendency to grow. Corrupt officials at the highest levels of government and in corporations plant the seeds of corruption. Cronyism leads to oligarchy. The line between blackmail and a kickback becomes blurred. Corruption originates and takes root in the organs of state, but not without the agency of politicians and bureaucrats. Eventually, more people find themselves tolerating and themselves engaging in corrupt activities. Little corrupt acts lead to bigger acts. Issues of “agency”—who do I have a duty too, become blurred. If I am a representative of the people, can I also be legal counsel for a city government? What happens to my contract with that government if I support property tax relief that may impact that government negatively but help my constituents? Declaring or disclosing a potential conflict doesn’t change the conflict.
There are two reasons for corruption in the world—one was alluded to earlier—man’s inclination to choose to do wrong—sin. The other is economic. Allowing government involvement in the everyday transactions of human commerce is always and ultimately will become corrupting. Allowing government—politicians and bureaucrats wide discretion in how they exercise powers such as who and how much to tax a transaction or an asset, or who to license or allow to have a permit becomes u occasion for corruption.
Creating any plan to deal with corruption needs to address both causes of corruption. Teaching people the Christian virtues of prudence, temperance, justice and courage would be a start. Teaching the Golden Rule and The Ten Commandments could replace Critical Race Theory and Societal Justice Programs at all levels of education. But no matter what, man’s sinful nature needs to be held in check by a system that limits individual power or the power of the few to act against the desires of the many or vice versa… Our system of checks and balances was designed to do just that. Creating government programs that increase the power of government, increasing the dependency of individuals on government and by so doing increasing the allegiance of groups of individuals to a particular philosophy of government, only increases opportunity for corruption—by either party.
We are today seeing in real time the effects of corruption in government. In our own government the collusion of big business, education, and the introduction of politics into our legal system—more than at any other time our courts and our Department of Justice have been politicized. How is it that legislators pass laws and sentencing guidelines for criminals, and prosecutors and judges whose campaigns are financed by the likes of George Soros and the Koch brothers, release criminals serving time for violent crimes years before they are supposed to leave prison? And how is it that the Clinton Foundation, The Hilary Clinton Campaign. The DOJ—DNC—Perkins-Coi Law firm—Fusion GPS (how is that for private, government and foreign national collusion?) get off without even their knuckles being scuffed, and General Flynn and Rudy Giuliani have their homes and offices raided by FBI thugs? —I used to have great respect for the FBI and even have family members who have served but the upper echelons of that organization are very corrupt and a large number of former agents and agents today agree with me.
But immigration and emigration are also intimately associated with corruption and corrupt people. One of the biggest reasons for risking one’s life and the life of one’s family and migrating across deserts and oceans is the fleeing of corrupt governments. The main reason people are fleeing States like California, New York, Illinois, Oregon and Washington is corruption Where people are subject to government oppression, when government oppression becomes political oppression, when people suffer religious or philosophical persecution, when they no longer trust government to protect their property—real and intellectual, when all economic activity is under the thumb of government and the rule of law is absent—think Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, Baltimore LA, SF, in short when government and societies become corrupt, people will flee in search of liberty and the rule of law. This is exactly what is happening in the mass migrations from Africa to Europe, from South and Central America to the USA, and from blue states to red states. CORRUPTION.
Many citizens in our fine state believe that Idaho is immune from corruption. I attended several years ago a conference in New Orleans with many corporate CEOs and legislators from across many states, In the presence of one of our own State Legislators a Washington DC lobbyist opinioned that the two most corrupt States in the country were Louisiana and Idaho! I believe his assessment in our State’s case was extreme, but his point was that the symbiotic relationship between business and government was easy to leverage for outsiders—government agencies and big business. When one looks at that relationship between big lobbyists like IACI, IHA/IMA, Cof C, and the teachers unions, one begins to understand the corrupt nature of Idaho.
I grew up in a State and town—Columbus Ohio, where the mafia a generation earlier had run free. Cleveland and Canton Ohio were hotbeds of mob activity. East Liverpool Ohio was a well- known mob hideaway. It was rumored in many circles that Ray Bliss’—The head of the Ohio and then National Republican Party, and several very popular Ohio Governors from both political parties had mob ties through their union pension funds, and the letting out of State highway contracts. In our State are the State employees, and teachers, the beneficiaries of the same retirement programs administered by the same bureaucrats working for the State? Are the relationships between State Employees and teachers and our legislators and those in the Executive branch the same as Ray Bliss, the aforementioned Ohio Governors and the Trade Unions and construction companies? Same with some legislators?
Maybe this can all be resolved at this year’s Governor’s Cup—NOT Do the teacher’s Unions or any lobbyist group representing government employees who have State sponsored retirement benefit plans make campaign contributions to politicians running for State Office or legislative positions?—hmmmm. Are these conflicts ever disclosed or declared? — NOT.
Can we all say together—CORRUPTION.
Why isn’t Mrs. Betsy Russell writing about this? If she does, will she lose access or favor? CORRUPTION or COLLUSION?
There are two sources of corruption that we need to be constantly vigilant about. The first is obvious—man’s natural inclination to do wrong—sin. Our Church leaders for several generations have taken a back seat on this issue—heck Catholic Charities receives over 50% of their income from the Federal government. If they speak out they may lose funding. Corrupt? The second point my more libertarian leaning friends will not agree with me about. We need to rely on institutional arrangements that rely on rules and laws rather than on the arbitrary discretions of State officials—and those State officials must live by the laws created by the legislative bodies elected by the people. This requires the withdrawal of the State from a large portion of economic activity and clearly defining and in many cases eliminating the “discretionary power” of State officials. For corruption to be broken it requires the shrinking of government and the defunding of many government agencies, and a relooking at the relationships between State government, State employees and the citizens who elect them and pay their salaries and pensions.
Finally, this needs to be said. Immigration, Health Care Reform, taxes that allow the government bureaucracy to grow, confronting government procurement policies including the military supply system, educational reverse federalism, local authorities decreasing government regulations making critical decisions about the pandemic, decreasing government regulations, confronting the liberal media—almost everywhere you look, the reason Donald Trump was so hated was ultimately and in all cases he was confronting CORRUPTION. Corrupt people across the board hated him because he was confronting them and their corruption. The DOJ knows this, the media knows this and so does Hollywood, the teacher’s unions—you name it they, all know this.
Maybe that is the reason our Lt. Governor is so feared by the Republican establishment in Idaho. Is she the Donald Trump of Idaho? —Standing against the political cronyism and corruption in our State can make you an enemy of the establishment.
I don’t know which is worse—corruption or incompetence. With Uncle Joe Biden I believe we have a case study in DC. We may have several case studies in our own State.
Don’t think for a moment that Idaho government is not well along the road toward corruption. If you don’t believe, me just ask any official in the Legislative Budget Office if we could have an “outside signed partners audit” of Medicaid or the SHIP programs. Talk about a push back—or would that be a “kick back”? MAGA
