The Jack Abramoff Scandal may very well be remembered as a watershed in American history. Slowly but surely, the influence of "big money" and corporate interests in our political system has devolved our democracy into a modern day resurrected Feudal System of Lords and vassals. In time leading up to the Jack Abramoff Scandal you could sense the nerves rattling on Capital Hill as if people were saying on the inside that "the jig is up", or that a house of cards were about to fall. Down they fell, from Randall Cunningham to Bob Ney, Tom Delay, Mark Foley, and a host of other leaders and associates. Republicans were swept into a deadly rip tide of their own creation, and that political ocean current was fed by the category 7 Hurricane "Bush's-Failed-Iraq-Policy." Churning and stationary that storm is still building strength, but most of us are not aware how deadly this storm can be since it's still located "off-shore." The tide swept through Congress, the Republicans were felled on The Hill, party control shifted in governorships and state legislatures, and the White House lost Rumsfeld (or placed him on the sacrificial altar).
It's been said that "Absolute power corrupts absolutely," and that has never been more true than has been the case these past six years (and longer if you start to analyze it thoroughly). The progressive programs and policies of the last 60 years that began under the Roosevelt Administration's "New Deal" and expanded under the Johnson Administration "War on Poverty" have been reversed. Angered by what they perceived as social program excesses, conservatives worked slowly over several decades to change the landscape by: swinging southern conservative Democrats to their cause, forging alliances with Christian groups, mastering grassroots politics, supporting conservative candidates in local and state races, and controlling the message through conservative bought and operated media outlets.
What went wrong was what almost always happen when you have too much of a good thing: you abuse it. Conservative administrations our recent conservative Congress have become corrupted by money and power the same way their Democratic/Progressive counterparts were during their excessive reign. Money controls access and having access helps to set the agenda. Today lobbyists have become a quasi third branch of government, and the average American will never have the same level of access that lobbyists and their special interest clients currently have. The Congressional Scandals are disaffecting the Republican base and Americans in general, but what the situation highlights is how far removed from the our founding father's vision we have become. As long as money remains the overwhelmingly dominant determinant of access, a "government of the people, for the people, by the people" will remain an elusive concept once dreamt about eleven score and ten years ago...
