Whether it is coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, or referent, we all know that power can easily lead to unethical behavior. Typically, we're told that leaders fail when they use power vested for the purpose of achieving collective goals to promote some personal interest. This is true to some extent. The number of politicians who have recently abused their power to selfishly gain is staggering: Rangel, Blagojevich, Burris, Dodd, Conrad, and Domenici. The list could go on. But what is more frightening than the ad hoc and isolated instances of unethical conduct is the way that the very institutions of governance in this country have quietly evolved into centers of perpetual corruption. Presently underway is a colossal fleecing of the nation’s privately owned resources at the hands of willing politicians and arrogating contingencies, while the balance of the masses sit motionless, bullied into compliance. Contemporary society immediately exonerates the majority. But can it not be said that the recent past suggests the majority’s culpability is equal to, if not greater than that of any single corrupt leader?
In months leading up to the 2008 presidential election, an event that captured the attention of the nation was widely reported by the news media and fervently debated by people of all political persuasions. The question came from a middle-class plumber who was about to purchase a plumbing company with revenues greater than $250,000. Joe Wurzelbacher, since affectionately dubbed “Joe the Plumber,” asked Obama if his tax plan would increase the tax burden borne by Wurzelbacher after the purchase of the company was finalized. Obama’s answer acknowledged that his taxes on revenues greater than $250, 000 would increase from 36% to 39%, and that he believed, “when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
The state of the political establishment in this country has evolved into an institution that is rife with unethical behavior, and this event clarified in a profound way the nature of the ethical degeneration that threatens the foundations of our free republic. Private property rights, though guaranteed by the constitution, have, in many aspects, ceased to exist in this country. Political elites have convinced a nation that taking the wealth of one individual and giving it to another is perfectly conventional, rational, honorable and virtuous. The politicians take from the minority, and hand it over to the factions—an act of remuneration for their vote. It would be disingenuous to blame only the politicians, because this unethical relationship is symbiotic. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” That is, the power bestowed upon the elected, and the power of the electorate to bestow. Those who demand that the politician confiscate the bounty, and then apportion it to his comrades, are equally unethical in my view.
Indeed, it still takes two to tango.
