Arturo M. Silva
Dr. Angela Miss
EN101
December 1, 2006
The Political Crisis Of the United States
The Branches of United States Government has encountered more corrupted politicians in the last ten years than in the last twenty years. This should have been a foreseen crisis. But due to 9/11, immense recount scandals, the Iraq War and President Bush, the epidemic was overlooked. “Congress is supposed to be a body of public servants-people who pass up more lucrative professions for a chance to influence policy and improve constituents' lives.” (“Shameless”, 1) No longer can this indiscretions continue because the American people can not tolerate it anymore. “The schemes, often entered into with a breathtaking audacity and sense of personal entitlement, are corrosive to democracy, injurious to the reputations of the honest and diligent lawmakers, and illustrative of the adage that power corrupts.” (“Shameless”, 1) These loud remarks on our democracy outline the impossibility of ethics to exist in politics because of past and current political climate, our government's current structure and human nature as a minor factor.
CNN News polled 1,102 adult Americans in October of this year about job accountability, corruption in Congress and the elections. When they were asked this question, “ Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Republicans or the Democrats in Congress are handling their job?”. Over 50% of Americans disapprove of Congress members way of doing their job according this poll and CNN/USA Today/GALLUP Trends over the last seven years. Another question was asked whether or not they think most members of Congress are corrupt. Once again more than 50% of Americans say that most members of Congress are corrupt. This same question was posed in 1994 and the same results came out. All of these polls were conducted by Opinion Research Corporation which is a trusted authority on polling data for national news stations. (CNN-ORC, 1-3)
In the matter of a few weeks I have compiled and browsed over 140 articles concerning corruption, campaign scandals, and conflicts of interests in the United States government. That number is small compared to the amount I did search for on NC LIVE. Using the EZ Search I was able to find 6,400 articles on these three topics. I came across an organization devoted to “Holding Power Accountable”, Common Cause. They released this at the beginning of this year, “2005: The House Ethics Committee's Year of Inaction”. It sums up all the actions and inactions of the committee. These are their findings starting on January 4, “House Republicans approve rules changes making it much harder for the House Ethics Committee to launch an investigation. The most damaging change allowed cases to be dismissed if the evenly divided Ethics Committee is deadlocked on whether to proceed.” (“Inaction”, 1) On March 10: “Led by Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), the Ethics Committee's ranking member, the five Democrats on the panel refuse to formally organize and begin work until Republicans reverse earlier rules changes making it harder to launch an investigation. The committee's work comes to a halt.” (“Inaction”, 1) And on April 27: “In a highly unusual move, the House votes to roll back ethics rules changes, forced on the chamber in January that would have made it harder to launch an ethics investigation.” (“Inaction”, 2) The weakness in the committee just showed the extent of corruption at which this epidemic has spread. Most of the articles I sifted through concerned the House more than the Senate in corrupted members. In further research I came across an article by CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington). It was their second annual “Most Corrupt Members of Congress” Report. These seventeen representatives and three senators are the most corrupt members of Congress according to CREW: Sen. Conrad Burns, Sen. Bill Frist, Sen. Rick Santorum, Rep. Roy Blunt, Rep. Ken Calvert, Rep. John Doolittle, Rep. Tom Feeney, Rep. Katherine Harris and Rep. Marilyn Musgave to name a few. These politicians made a decision and their “collective corruption affects all Americans.” (“Inaction”, 1) These statistics are overwhelming and show that there is an evident ethics crisis. Or is this a crisis that is normal in politics? Is this a part of politics? Can our country eliminate or even attempt to regulate it? Where has the reverence for ethics gone?
First we must define the subjects at hand: politics, ethics and corruption. Politics defined by Aquinas is “it legislates what people are to do and what they are not to do...” (Aristotle, 4) So how are public servants as human beings be able to ignore their desire for wealth and power? To ignore their “practical wisdom” and go with their “political wisdom”. (Aquinas, 215) Are men innately political animals? We do not know the answer to that question because we are only knowledgeable that human beings have a conscience, they have reason. Humans can prescribe to their prudence, their practical wisdom which is “the intellectual virtue consisting of the right characteristic disposition to reason about what human beings should or should not do.” (Aquinas, 215) Do their positions give them the precept of ignorance for the laws?
In an ideal democratic society these questions would not be asked. But as we are the most capitalist country in the world those questions are posed before us. “But those who regulate their desires and actions by a rational principle will greatly benefit from a knowledge of this subject (politics).” (Aristotle, 6) To begin with men are not moral beings and if they were there would be no desires, only needs which understanding men cannot attain the full knowledge of politics. The need to sustain their lives and others and to seek moral and social justice for all. But this is not the case and ideal ethics and politics can not exist in a capitalist government. Our government is covered in corruption and as Robert C. Brooks defines this:
“In its broadest significance, corruption has been defined as “the intentional mis performance or neglect of a recognized duty, or the unwarranted exercise of power, with the motive of gaining some advantage more or less directly personal.” (Brooks, 81)
“With the motive of gaining some advantage more or less directly personal” defines it's self as self-interest. When the interests of the self, conflict with interests of the community or governing body, conflicts of interests exist. In our government there are committees and laws put into place to battle and regulate corruption and conflicts of interests.
“In attempting to define corruption, emphasis was laid upon the condition that the duty mis performed or neglected for personal reasons must be recognized. The latter word needs further elucidation. Political duties are defined at great length, of course, in constitutions, laws, and charters. Yet with all our care in providing laws to govern our governors it cannot be maintained that political duty is always so clear as to be easily recognizable.” (Brooks, 55)
In the U.S. Senate Ethics Manual has five hundred and forty two pages of their code of conduct and related ethics laws, and description of the Committee. This manner of clearly stating their conducts and laws is in the Executive Branch's manual and the House of Representatives. These manuals and committees should raise their standards each year by creating a new level of achievement each year. All of the committees are staffed by either senators, representatives or members of the Executive. Internal public servants governing internal public servants. Is this a solution to corruption or is it an lazy way of regulating ethical standards? “Peer review simply is not the answer when it comes to a fair, firm process that ensures that Members live by ethics rules on the books.” (“Q&A”, 1) The number of corrupted politicians are too great to have them govern themselves. But if an independent ethics commission were to be created to “investigate congressional ethics misconduct” it would dissolve some or all of unfair processing of corrupted politicians. (“Challenge”, 1) According to Common Cause the solution to this “broken ethics system” is not a complex task to a accomplish. In their article, “Independent Ethics Commission Q & A: Common Cause Ethics Challenge”, they said the commission would consist of “former federal judges” and “an odd number of Commissioners” to help with conflict of interests. (“Independent”, 1) The independent commission would only be a consultation for the Congress Ethics Committees. (“Independent”, 1) There is already legislation which would serve the same purpose as Common Causes'. But in this case the legislation “includes a requirement of mandatory annual ethics training for members and House employees and also includes lobby and ethics reforms.” (“Obama”, 1) The legislation is out there but no immediate action from the House has taken place. Melanie Sloan, the head for CREW said January 2006, “It needs to be repaired quickly so that the American people can have some confidence in the institution of the House of Representatives.” All of these committees and an independent commission is beneficial to the fight for a ethical Congress but will not create a bond between ethics and politics. So this is true because as I said before a constant conflict of interest will exist between them which makes the ideal democracy impossible. Unless humans beings begin to learn their morals and ethics at a young age and learn to appreciate their existence. “Devotion to an ethical life is not only a noble pursuit, it is now the very essence of government in a modern world increasingly concerned with transparency and accountability. Impossibility exists because of the modern political climate, the structure of the government and human being's nature.
Works Cited
"2005: the House Ethics Committee's Year of Inaction." Common Cause. Common Cause. 30 Nov. 2006 <http://www.commoncause.org/atf/cf/%7BFB3C17E2-CDD1-4DF6-92BE-BD4429893665%7D/ETHICSTIMELINE2005.PDF>.
Aquinas, Thomas. On Law, Morality, and Politics. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Company, Inc., 2002. 215.
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1999. 4-7.
Brooks, Robert C. Corruption in Amercian Politics and Life. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1910. 54-81.
Carney, Gerard. "Conflict of Interest: Legislators, Ministers and Public Officials: Conclusions." Working Paper. 22 Nov. 2004. Transparency International. 20 Nov. 2006 <http://ww1.transparency.org/working_papers/carney/4-conclusions.html>.
"CNN Poll-October 19, 2006." CNN. 13 Oct. 2006. Opinion Research Corporation. 28 Nov. 2006 <http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/images/10/19/rel25caf.pdf>.
"Common Cause Ethics Challenge." Common Cause. 30 Nov. 2006. Common Cause. 30 Nov. 2006 <http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=196485>.
"CREW Releases Second Annual Most Corrupt Members of Congress Report." Beyond Delay. 20 Sept. 2006. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. 29 Nov. 2006 <http://www.beyonddelay.org/node/96>.
Foreman, Tom. "Mum's the Word for the Ethics Committee." CNN. 13 Jan. 2006. CNN. 30 Nov. 2006 <http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/11/house.ethics/>.
"Independent Ethics Commission Q & A." Common Cause. 30 Nov. 2006. Common Cause Educational Fund. 29 Nov. 2006 <http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=1343543>.
"Obama Calls for Independent Ethics Commission in House." Common Cause. 5 Oct. 2006. Common Cause. 28 Dec. 2006 <http://www.commoncause.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=194883&ct=3005205>.
"Shameless Money Schemes Stain Congress' Reputation." USA Today Opinion. 18 Oct. 2006. USA Today. 29 Nov. 2006 <http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2006/10/post_24.html>.
