The most partisan issue OF all, is not a partisan issue AT all.

Expect Republicans to be hammering Democrats over the
endless stream of revelations of corrupt Democrats.

Yet if the situation were reversed,
the situation would be reversed, exactly.

There are two elements of public corruption; temptation and human weakness. Neither have any correlation to political party.

There are those who are arguing right now, that we could solve all of our problems by electing people who are not weak. Good luck on that one.

Imagine a large suitcase filled with someone else's money;
unmarked twenties, absolutely untraceable. Imagine that
the suitcase is there for the taking, with absolutely no chance
of getting caught.

Now tell me that you think you have the opportunity to elect people who have what it takes to walk by that suitcase, and another, and another.

Of the two, human weakness and temptation,
we have no control whatsoever over one, and
complete control over the other.

We can eliminate the temptation, we can make it impossibly difficult to yield to that temptation without getting caught.

Casinos are not stolen from, like taxpayers are. Casinos make it
impossibly difficult to steal without getting caught.

There is the opportunity to protect the suitcase, thereby removing the temptation. At which point human weakness no longer plays.

State Auditor Hector Balderas says that he can keep a forensic eye on the suitcase, given resources. Given the resources, he can make it impossibly difficult to steal or waste tax dollars. Given the resources, he says he can end the culture of corrupt spending.

There is not a single candidate for Governor, promising to give the Office of the State Auditor, resources enough to end the culture of corruption, at once, and for all.

Someone reached my blog recently, by way of a question they googled, "why do people steal public money?"

They steal it because they can.

They steal it because we allow them to.

They steal it because there are not enough of us,
willing to stand together on the steps of the Roundhouse
there to demand, the end of the culture of corruption.

They steal it because we don't have the cajones to stop them.




photo Mark Bralley