You can't trademark 'a culture of corruption'

It's a culture of corruption! Such is the democrats' latest mantra, sure to be repeated over and over til the November elections. But the slogan would not have received any traction if not for actual corrupt figures like Jack Abramoff and Duke Cunningham.

The point of the post is not to argue in favor of one party over the other, since I'm pretty convinced the culture of corruption firmly applies to both and therefore cannot be figuratively trademarked by the democrats. No, it's more about the culture of corruption in general. And although it's risky to posit guesses as to whether the present generation is more or less corrupt than past versions, it does appear at least that ours is backsliding.

For example, here's a local story about corruption in the Memphis Police Department's Property and Evidence Room. Drugs and loot were coming in the front door and going out the back. Quite amazing. The director of the center had a million dollars stashed around his house. This is nothing new in the course of history, the question is whether it's beginning to lose its stigma.

Temptation is a strong force. As George Washington put it, "few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." But the founders had concern that the natural ways of man would undermine the stability of their governmental experiment.

Sam Adams said, "he who is void of virtuous attachments in private life is, or very soon will be, void of all regard for his country. There is seldom an instance of a man guilty of betraying his country, who had not before lost the feeling of moral obligations in his private connections...."

And John Adams is oft-quoted, "we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

If our society reaches the point where selfish ambition wins the PR battle over personal ethics, and where backroom deals, quid pro quos, and kickbacks rule government, I don't think we can maintain this republic. The barbarians are already massing outside the gate.