Unlike most Pages, this doesn’t have any links. It’s mostly here because it’s a bit long for a comment.

I have long been a proponent of America in general. By that I mean that the US is unequivocally a force for good in the world. The world is a better place for the fact that it is the US that is the lone superpower, and we will all certainly be worse off when China inevitably takes over the mantle of world dominance, until such time as the Chinese develop similar ideas of freedom and egalitarian, liberal cultural values. I do not believe the US to be racist, definitely not by world standards, and I think the general despair that many have about ‘dumbing down’ and ‘self-centredness’ and US culture in general is unfounded. However, a couple of recent events have made me very disturbed indeed.

Most recently is this issue with Governor Walker and the phone call with the fake David Koch. When I first heard about it, I expected it to be a fairly trivial sort of ‘hey, how you doing, thanks for the donation, we appreciate all you do, how are the wife and kids’ sort of thing that was being bandied about as evidence of corruption. It obviously is not. It’s blatant and ghastly. It is a Governor of a state, a very powerful figure in the US system, reporting to a plutocrat like he would to his boss. It’s repulsive. And shame on anyone who tries to characterise it otherwise.

That’s not really what disturbs me, though. Money buying access is nothing new - in fact, it’s not even really shocking, that’s how politics is. Money buying influence and buying favours is also nothing new, and while rather more concerning, it’s not shocking. Money buying a governor wholesale - that’s appalling. But even that doesn’t disturb me. What bothers me is that this isn’t a big deal.

Seriously. Why the fuck is this not the biggest story of the year? Why is this not front page, headline news? Why is the fact that a Governor considers himself a catspaw for robber barons not the latest scandal, the latest -Gate? The President gets out of bed, and one fake story later every news network is suddenly reporting something about BedroomSlipperGate. But evidence of blatant influence peddling and borderline (at least) corruption isn’t even news? Once upon a time, this sort of stuff won people Pulitzers. What sort of trance are the American people in that this isn’t a big deal?

I cannot express how horrified I am at this. I am horrified enough at the naked lack of ethics. I am even more horrified at the fact that the Governor can respond to this by basically saying ‘so what?’ and not a word is to be found on national news. Just lost for words. I was similarly flabbergasted when Sheriff Dupnik came out and condemned, of all things, bigotry and hatred, and was castigated broadly for that. No accusations, no finger-pointing, and suddenly an officer of the law is having his integrity questioned on the national stage for no reason at all, save that some saw a golden opportunity to feed the victim complex and the hatred of their captive audience.

Events like these two have shaken my faith in the ultimate decency of the American condition. Some complacency is expected and normal. Some distractability is inevitable. But in the end, there is right and wrong. I have always believed that free people in Western civilisations could, as a whole, tell the difference. I hope that is still true.