Rotten to the Core

I have been neglecting posting, not because there is nothing to say, but because the amount of corruption and waste is so pervasive that I am finding it hard to focus on one subject. Where do we turn when corruption has tainted every aspect of government?

I look at a local government riddled with officials elected through the machinations of a foreign corporation. Our mayor has the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. The upcoming election season is already shaping up to be one of the worst mud slinging fiascos in the history of Fayette County, as office seekers try to show that they are less dirty than their opponents.

Under normal circumstances, we might turn to the state for help, but whom would we ask? Unqualified political appointees have packed the courts. The administration is stonewalling a grand jury, while our governor hands out blanket pardons to wrongdoers before cases ever go to trial. My state representative blindly (or perhaps with eyes wide open) votes the Republican Party line. My state senator seems to be unaware that I even exist. Perhaps, if I were a member of her party, she would answer a letter or reply to my phone calls.

I don't know that we will ever be able to determine the extent of wrongdoing in the Fletcher administration. Those initiated have not rushed to turn down a pardon, which implies that the accused know they are guilty. Nor have they been particularly forthcoming with information when recalled by the grand jury.

I have no confidence that the Democrats would be any less corrupt if power were placed in their hands again. Governor Patton left office under the cloud of sexual harassment. My party chair is a convicted felon. Democrats across the state have been less than inspiring examples of integrity. There are those working to clean up the party, but it is a daunting task. Corruption in Kentucky politics is as old as the state.

I will not go into the sins of the federal government. There are a thousand better blogs than my own that detail those crimes against the public trust. But it is time to stop the madness. Our nation, our state, our city crumble under the weight of self-serving officialdom. The rot inside our government is far worse than the damage done to the Gulf Coast. It is a festering wound that threatens the life of the nation. Unless we clean out the wound, and rid ourselves of every entrenched manifestation of this corruption, the great experiment in democracy our ancestors envisioned will fail.