[JOHNKASSNEWS] By James Banakis
'Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely'
 This quote was penned by Lord Acton, the strong 19th century advocate for individual liberty. It is a timeless observation as old as the scriptures. It underscores his conviction that unchecked power poses the greatest threat to human freedom. His work consistently underscored the significance of limiting government and concentrated authority in favor of individual rights and personal liberty.
Lord Acton is a hero of mine. As a business owner I understand that individual liberty is mother’s milk for the entrepreneur. Acton understood that great men are almost always bad men when you
"combine the certainty of corruption by authority."
My ancestors immigrated to America in the 1880’s. Out of necessity they became fruit peddlers. It was the most rudimentary of all businesses. One buys fruit at the market, transports it by foot to underserved areas of the city, and hopefully sells it for a profit. In 1886 there was no safety net. EBT cards and Medicaid were nonexistent. As always there was no protection from the God-awful Chicago winters. Competition was fierce and at times violent. Because of lack of language skills, and understanding of laws and their rights, immigrants were easily swindled and taken advantage of.
There was only one’s resourcefulness and determination to defend against the obstacles. Yet of all the hardships, the one that was the most feared, hated, and potentially the most damaging was concentrated governmental power and abusive corruption.
Family stories were passed down to me in the oral tradition that connected one generation to the next for ages and ages. My favorite stories were the ones that involved conflict, heroic undertakings, and cunning conclusions. I always envisioned these stories as our family’s ongoing Odessey.
As a child I was told of the cops, bureaucrats, and elected officials (the bad guys) who shook down my great grandfather and great uncles (the good guys). Push-carts, the most indispensable part of their livelihood, sometimes disappeared or were destroyed overnight. Like Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill, they had to start over. There were no other options.
In time though the fruit carts evolved into a produce shop at the South Water Market. My Grandfather would tell me of how his father and uncles would have to provide all the politicians with baskets of fruit and Christmas trees every year. The cops would help themselves to produce daily.
Years pass and the produce shop evolved into restaurants and a coffee distributorship in the following generation. Paying tribute continued to be a cost of doing business in Chicago only now there were now more bureaucrats, sales tax examiners, and inspectors. Most all of them conducted the city’s business with their hand in small businessman’s pocket. Relating the experience to me, my grandfather, normally docile if stock market wasn’t having a down day, would narrow his eyes, lean in, and call the grifters, "dirty bloodsucking sons of bitches."
Years later, my opening a business in the city meant hiring a facilitator to guide me through the complicated process of who to know and who to pay obtaining all the licenses and inspections. The most galling part of the corruption I experienced was the confident condescension, and arrogance of most officials I had to deal with. They knew they held all the cards, and they had the only table in the casino.
As I write this, Mike Madigan is being sentenced to 7.5 years for a lifetime of corruption. Madigan, the longest serving legislative leader in US history, rose to power manipulating zoning laws. In the weeks leading up to the sentencing, there are cries for mercy from fellow complicit politicians and friends. After the sentence there are all the phony self-righteous politicians saying they’re glad, he deserved it. Spare Me! As far as I’m concerned, Mike Madigan and all his yet unindicted buddies are nothing more than the "bloodsucking sons of bitches" my grandfather warned me about. For generations they enriched themselves at the expense of all the entrepreneurs who started businesses unable to sleep nights trying to navigate making payrolls and paying mortgages and mollifying greedy politicians always aware that they hold the power to end their businesses or at the very least make their lives a costly living nightmare.
Madigan is the embodiment of Lord Acton’s axiom. In this deeply blue state, he held absolute power. There were no checks and balances from a flaccid, complicit republican opposition. His daughter served as attorney general protecting him from legal prosecution. Madigan collected untold millions selling business licenses at the airports, rezoning whatever he needed to regardless of who’s life was upended or destroyed. Despite all his exploitation and fraud, Madigan is small potatoes compared to some of our national leaders.
Today only 15 percent of Americans view Congress as favorable. Most (80 percent) of us favor term limits on Congress, but it would be almost impossible to put into law. Why? Because Congress alone has the power to enact a law to that effect, and they would never willingly neuter themselves. They also have passed laws to protect themselves from sexual harassment, and liable and slander laws. Almost anything they say or do short of murder inside the Capital building is protected.
They have the power to vote themselves raises. Many times, they put their spouses and family members on their office payrolls, but it’s only a facade. Most outrageous of all of course is that they enrich themselves to an obscene amount through inside trading and influence pedaling. The most influential, Pelosi, McConnell, Schummer, Biden, Tillis, Warren just to name a few, in the hundreds of millions of dollars. An incumbent congress person has a 90 percent chance of reelection because of special interest and labor union money poured into their campaigns. Congress is no longer interested in solving our problems, but only in covering their asses, cashing in, and getting reelected. Absolute power corrupting again.
Illinois like California and other states are now essentially one-party rule. Once that happens the power of all elected officials, the servants of we citizens, become absolute. Corruption and their self-serving policy get shoved down our throats. Isn’t this cycle of tumbling into the abyss of absolute power emblematic of the mess we find ourselves in America today?
Our visionary, sagacious founding fathers based our Constitution and Bill of Rights on individual freedom, checking the powers of those who govern. Thomas Paine expressed in "Common Sense" that government is at best a "necessary evil." In 1776, the founders were in a position much like we’re in today. The absolute all powerful British Crown, consuming as much power as it wished. The problem, then and now, is to formulate a system that gives government the power necessary to protect individual liberty and prevents those who govern from abusing that power.
In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish a government that becomes damaging of their natural rights and liberties. He saw this as a necessary instrument to control our leaders and prevent tyranny. He foresaw occasional rebellions to refresh the "tree of liberty."
So, there we have it. The solution is our sacred birthright. One popular definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results." Instead of believing Mike Madigan’s seven years sentence is going to solve the corrupt environment we find ourselves sinking into up to our necks. We need to follow Jefferson’s remedy. Of course, it’s not going to be a simple task but like the fruit peddler who repaired his broken cart, we need to push the boulder up the hill together and refresh the tree of liberty from all the "bloodsucking sons of bitches."
It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
— Theodore Roosevelt
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