The
Corrupt Country
Alfonse Gabriel Capone, aka “Scarface”, aka Al Capone, was a
criminal.
He was a hoodlum. A thug. A sociopath.
He ruled the criminal activity in Chicago during the 1920’s. During the era of failed “experiment” known
as Prohibition, Capone ruled over the transportation of illegal alcohol in the
area. He was also the guy in charge of
gambling and prostitution, but those things weren’t as profitable as alcohol. People may not gamble... they may not go to
“those places”... but they loved their drink.
And they hated the self-righteous people that took that away from them.
Yes, in the public eye, Capone was seen as a
“good guy”. He was a businessman at
a time when life was good and profitable.
Granted, that business was largely illegal, but that wasn’t something
that you said publicly. The media loved
him in those days. He was the “bad boy
done good”. He lived lavishly and was
quite generous with his spending. The
media loves to report things like that.
More so than, say, the brutal violence that would follow later in the
20’s.
Al Capone was able to get away with his criminal activity partially
because of fear and intimidation. Yes,
he had goon squads to enforce his will.
But he always had goons under his command, even when the media portrayed
him as a “successful businessman”.
So how did Capone manage to get away with his criminal activity for
almost a whole decade?
Simple: because Chicago was corrupt.
I don’t just mean “a few bad apples in the bunch”. The whole city was corrupt. Rotten to the core. And everyone knew it, even if they didn’t
want to admit to it.
The cop on the beat had no qualms looking the other way when it came to
Capone’s operation. Maybe because he was
on the take. Maybe because he feared for
his life. Maybe because he needed a
drink like everyone else. But most
likely because he just didn’t care about the law as he cared about just working
his beat and going home. Same with the
local prosecutors and the city officials and the judges. The system was rigged to look the other way
when it came to Capone. Everyone knew
it. They didn’t care.
It was only when it got really nasty, when prosecutors were murdered and
the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre happened, that the federal government got
involved. And in order to put Capone
away, they had to cheat.
Yes, Capone got indicted on income tax evasion, but he still tried to
game the system when he wasn’t able to cut a deal. He bought the jury, so the judge swapped the
jury with one that quickly convicted Capone.
The judge had to use an underhanded move in order to get the conviction. He had to cheat.
Al Capone was a thug and a crime boss.
But he was allowed to get away with what he did for so very long because
the city was already compromised and corrupt.
The city and county facilitated his criminal activities. It took a higher authority and a little
cheating to finally bring him to justice.
But here’s the thing... nothing about the city changed after Capone was
sent away. The cop on the beat was back
at work the next day. Same with the
prosecutors, the judges, and the city officials. There was no mass purges of corrupt city and
county officials. No wave of quiet
resignations. The overall corruption
that facilitated Capone’s criminal activities remained firmly in place after
Capone. The whole rotted bushel stayed
in place, even after Capone left and after Prohibition was finally repealed.
So what would stop the next Capone from coming in and taking over where
he left off? If not in bootleg booze,
then in gambling or prostitution or some other criminal operation? The short answer is... nothing. The same corruption that supported Capone
would easily support the next Capone without hesitation.
The same is happening today with the United States.
We have a narcissistic president that is corrupt. We all know who he is. He is a thug, a bully, mentally unstable,
predatory, and abusive. He is accused of
numerous criminal activities, including but not limited to extortion, sexual
assault, and continual violations of the Emoluments
Clause in the United States Constitution.
He has been impeached by the House of Representatives, even if he is
never removed by the United States Senate, and that will forever stain his
legacy like it did for the other two Presidents before him.
And yet this corrupt and criminal thug is still where he is and is still
able to do what he does for one reason.
Much like Chicago a century ago, the United States government is
compromised and corrupt.
We have not only a political faction but a whole political party that has
put themselves and their abusive criminal thug above the United States and
above the very United States Constitution that many, if not all of them, have
taken an oath to protect and defend.
They have taken it upon themselves to lie and cheat in order to keep themselves
and their chosen savior in power. They
have a history of ignoring the rules when they are in power and then screaming
bloody murder about the rules when they are not in power. They knowingly and willingly kept hundreds of
judicial appointments empty for years, including one in the highest court, just
so they could later fill them in record speed with lackies loyal their
extremist views. And they have even gone
so far as to proclaim that there would be no challengers to their chosen savior
in their party’s 2020 primaries and caucuses.
This is far different from the government that was in place just fifty
years ago. When dirty tricks from the
White House were discovered and made public, you had a Congress that demanded
answers. There were bipartisan calls for
investigations, hearing, and even possibly impeachment. There were trials. People went to prison. The President himself had enough respect of
the office he served to step down before there was an impeachment.
Not only that, but there were safeguards that were put up in the wake of
those dirty tricks to try to prevent another such abuse of power. Safeguards that have since been carefully and
craftily removed or otherwise negated by that same political party.
This corruption is not something that happened overnight. This happened over the decades, worming their
way to the masses through email groups and talk radio and websites and a
certain cable news service. This is not
just about a philosophical indoctrination, but a conditioning of compromise
that says that it is okay to lie, cheat, steal, and betray everything that you
supposedly believe in just for the sake of power. And they say that this is “okay” because they
are supposedly the “real victims”, and that everything thing they do has been
done to them previously, even though it never has. They eagerly prop up the “both sides” fallacy
to validate their actions, even when it is only their side doing the activity.
And it worked. It set the stage
for the state we are in today, with a malignant narcissist committing crimes in
broad daylight and a legislative body supporting and endorsing them with a very
vocal and aggressive part of the populace behind them. A populace that will eagerly endorse actions
that end up hurting them so long as they can claim it “owns” another group that
they are conditioned to hate. A state of
corruption that actively and openly condones anarchy, but only as long as they
are the ones doing it.
This is where we are today.
So my question to you is… what happens should we remove the head of this
corrupt state? Because the office he
holds was never meant to be a lifetime appointment or kept in state of “divine
right”. By conviction or election or
simply the expiration of his term limit, this abusive and abrasive criminal
thug’s time in power will end. What
then?
Let’s get brutally honest here… the same widespread corruption that led
us to this point will still be around after said leader leaves or is
removed. The instigators and
propagandists behind it will still be around, rallying up the next abusive
tyrant. The masses that cheered it and
condoned it and even voted for it will still be around, waiting for that next
“messiah”.
This is why I haven’t mentioned any specific names in this article other
than Capone. Because the true problem is
not about the malignant narcissist of the day or his toadies or his
enablers. They would not be where they
are today if not for the corruption that is already present. The corruption that puts power over principle
and endorses abuse and sadism for victory.
They are the real problem. It’s
not just the one on the top, but it goes all the way down to our friends and
neighbors.
It is said that those who fail to learn the lessons of history are
forever doomed to repeat them. Historically
speaking, this has happened before. When
another country did it almost a century before, it was split in two, along with
its capitol, and it took a half-a-century before they could be reunited. This commentator would hope that we would
somehow avoid that kind of atonement, but that really depends on the rest of
us.
