Seeing Matters Especially Clearly
19 December 2008
Editor, Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
Re "Blagojevich Allegations Are Expanded" (December 19): The continued surprise at the scandalous acts of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is, well, surprising. Anyone with open eyes sees that such behavior is to be expected from those who successfully seek power by winning the popularity contests we call "elections." H.L. Mencken certainly saw reality with eyes open and vision acute:
"For if experience teaches us anything at all it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. His very existence, indeed, is a standing subversion of the public good in every rational sense. He is not one who serves the common weal; he is simply one who preys upon the commonwealth. It is to the interest of all the rest of us to hold down his powers to an irreducible minimum, and to reduce his compensation to nothing; it is to his interest to augment his powers at all hazards, and to make his compensation all the traffic will bear."*
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* H.L. Mencken, Prejudices (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1996 [1919]), p. 172.
Editor, Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
Re "Blagojevich Allegations Are Expanded" (December 19): The continued surprise at the scandalous acts of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is, well, surprising. Anyone with open eyes sees that such behavior is to be expected from those who successfully seek power by winning the popularity contests we call "elections." H.L. Mencken certainly saw reality with eyes open and vision acute:
"For if experience teaches us anything at all it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. His very existence, indeed, is a standing subversion of the public good in every rational sense. He is not one who serves the common weal; he is simply one who preys upon the commonwealth. It is to the interest of all the rest of us to hold down his powers to an irreducible minimum, and to reduce his compensation to nothing; it is to his interest to augment his powers at all hazards, and to make his compensation all the traffic will bear."*
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* H.L. Mencken, Prejudices (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1996 [1919]), p. 172.
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Sunday May 17, 2009 at 7:21pm