Posted on 06/03/2015 7:10:06 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When we read about the accumulated wealth of our leaders most of us simply shrug. Accumulated wealth after a lifetime spent in public service is now taken as a given. I think of the Hasterts, the Pelosis ($34 million or so) ); Ted Stevens, and of course we can't forget to mention the Clintons. Prosecution of our ruling class for violations of ordinary laws (which the rest of us must live by) is almost non-existent. (And where is the senator who is not a millionaire?) We tend to accept that there are two classes in America: our nobility, who are not to be judged by ordinary standards; and then everyone else. We have become, in that regard, divided like Bourbon France.
But once in awhile I remember a different America, and a different set of rules.
Sam Rayburn was in Congress for almost 49 years, 17 of them as Speaker -- Speaker during the years of FDR, Truman, and Eisenhower. Speaker during World War II -- the second-most powerful man in the country. Nowadays people hear that and think: World War II -- imagine the number of government contracts that were let! What incredible opportunities there must have been for a little acceptable graft! No one would be surprised -- or much upset -- if Rayburn had finished out his life with a nice bundle stashed away somewhere.
Lyndon Johnson, a rough contemporary, is estimated to have had as much as $100 million at the time of his death.
It comes as a major shock, then, to learn that Speaker Rayburn had only $26,000 in cash in various accounts when he died. In his civilian life he was a Texas rancher.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
“We have the best government money can buy!”..........Mark Twain.....................
Before Clinton, I would say that more politicians were honest than dishonest (on the national level), and we're more patriotic. Today, the vast majority of federal politicians are corrupt, and ran for office for the primarily reason of enriching themselves at the expense of the country and their constituents.
They have taken “stealing with pen and paper” to new heights and extremes. Taxpayers are continuously forced to fork over more and more of their hard earned dollars just because “they say so” using faux causes and emergencies to hit us with continuously. Something’s gotta give sooner or later.
It was Harry Truman who once said “ No honest man ever got rich in politics”.
They’re not just dishonest... they are CRIMINALS.
How long would any one of us stay ‘at large’ having done what THESE people routinely pull off?
A tale of two Americas. We need to get back our liberty, without permission if necessary.
“I believe the Bill Clinton presidency made widespread corruption much more acceptable in America.”
You’re 100% correct.
There has always been a level of graft and corruption in political office. It goes back to ancient Egypt and Sumeria. In the course of history, what causes nations to collapse is when the graft is no longer the means to an end (”grease” for the wheels of government) but becomes the end in itself. It’s when governments no longer uphold their social contract with the people they govern and public officials hold office for the sole purpose of enriching themselves. Governments cease governing.
Looking back at history, that happened to every Empire ever seen on the face of the earth, and when the government ceases being effective because of its corruption, the contract is broken. The people no longer exert themselves on behalf of an entity that only serves to rip them off. When the popular support vanishes, the state is destined to fall.
It is a law of human nature, and I don’t know why we somehow thought we were exempt from it.
We expect our politicians to be self-serving and dishonest; and therefore, we are never surprised or disappointed. We are only surprised when we find one that isn’t self-serving. We need term limits.
After Ike’s innaguation, Harry and Bess left the White House and caught a train to Independence. His only government income after leaving office was his $112/month pension for his service as a colonel in WWI. He apparently did not view government service as a way to get rich.
The Clinton presidency was one big coming out party for all of the criminals who use DC politics as their crime of choice.
Harry Truman only made it to captain. “Truman was promoted to captain in France and assigned Battery D, which was known for being the most unruly battery in the regiment. In spite of a generally shy and modest temperament, Truman captured the respect and admiration of his men and led them successfully through heavy fighting during the Meuse-Argonne campaign.”
Clinton was a only a sympton, a mere reflection of what our electorate was becoming due to the success of the Gramscian strategy.
It is getting worse each day. Pray.
I believe you are correct. Colonel would be quite a lot of rank to achieve in such a short (spring 1917 to fall 1918) war. I got the colonel part from a story on Truman’s tax returns. But I like the idea that when a citizen left the office of the President, he reverted back to an ordinary citizen like the rest of us—carrying his own bags from the train station as it were.
In contrast to, say the Clintons, who never owned their own home until after leaving “public service” and acquiring something large enough to be called a “compound” (and of course, a townhouse in Georgetown).
Yes-—”the success of the Gramscian strategy.”
Destroy Virtue in children (public schools since John Dewey targeted Christian Ethics on purpose to collapse culture) and you destroy the culture (future).
We used to have books, art, literature which promoted Virtue (Christian Ethics) which Montesquieu stated was necessary for a flourishing Republic....all Just Law promotes public virtue.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr and the Progressives set up unjust law punished Virtue and rewarded Vice——all ‘socialistic” laws which rewards theft and then we had censorship of all our Traditions and Jesus Christ (unjust laws which should have been Null and Void), so that transmission of Ethics and Traditions to children would be destroyed.
Removal of children (mandatory “education” at earlier and earlier ages—for the “plastic minds” to indoctrinate) from the Natural Family was the biggie——so that the “culture” could shape ALL perceptions of Good and Evil and not the mother and father, who should love and nurture their own children which create “individualism” and morality (model adult moral behaviors which are embedded in children)-—which can fight “group think”—Hitler Youth phenomenon.
We have sacrificed the minds of our children on the altar of paganism (strangers form their minds which is dehumanization of the child) which habitutated evil worldview and habits——which is nihilism which Nietzsche predicted in Europe....happened in Germany first, of course.
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