Three Cheers (and Three-Peat) for Corruption

In a city famous for NBA three-peats, the new three-peat that has a much higher probability to continue into a dynasty of sorts, is that Chicago again ranks as the most corrupt city in the United States. And, it is not even close.

The University of Illinois list of the most graft-ridden metropoleis in America relies heavily on the number of overall corruption convictions in the given cites. But, take a further look into the nature of those charges and convictions, and you will find just how insidious and harmful the actions of Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois politicians are to ordinary residents here.

Bribes from red-light camera companies. Connected law firms owned by politicos designed to fight outrageous property assessments. Kick-backs to energy suppliers already benefitting from government-granted monopoly status. Union shake-downs and quid pro quos ad infinitum.

Too much Latin there? Well, the corruption amazingly leaks into the ranks of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, the official head of which, Blase Cupich, (whose stupidity is only surpassed by his obsequiousness to Pope Francis), is actively suppressing the Traditional Latin Mass. Ironic or demonic connection? Likely both. Corruption is like an ink-blot on very thin, low-integrity paper: It spreads quickly and seems to know no bounds. Cupich is in legion with Mayor Lori Lightfoot. He needs public funding. She needs to look good in front of Chicago’s many nominal and naive Catholics. When a Catholic priest, Fr. Paul Kalachik removed a rainbow flag from the sanctuary of his parish church, the Lesbian in Lightfoot really got enraged, messaged Cupich, and Fr. Paul now is without a church, removed from service and numbers himself among the many faithful priests wrongly exiled by the modern American episcopate owned by the state. When Lightfoot and J.B. “the Hut” Pritzker went full bore with Covid lockdowns and restrictions, Cupich was right there at Holy Name Cathedral, getting his abortion-tainted vaccine and arguing that not complying with totalitarianism is tantamount to disbelief. I suppose that it all depends on the God whom one worships.

In spite of all that, perhaps we should cheer such utter corruption. You read that correctly–unlike Irving Kristol’s famous two-thirds endorsement of free markets–let’s recognize the benefits of such unrelenting graft.

Admittedly, I used to rage about all of it. The back-room dealings, the massive government handouts to corporations which then move out of the area once the handouts dry up, the inequitable distribution of city services to already wealthy neighborhoods instead of to the poor, dilapidated ones: Those are blatant and outright injustices after all. But, leave it to a British professional kickboxer ex-patriot living in Romania to knock me to my senses.

Andrew Tate resides in Bucharest, in a country with a failed-state, where the corruption is so rampant, willy-nilly, and inefficient that there are so many competing corrupt claimants that they can’t go too far with the shake-downs. For example, if a policeman in Romania stops you for speeding (rare, but let’s play along) the official fine might be 200 Romanian Leu. The copper will intimate to you in Romanian or strangely intelligible English or German or French that he could make this all go away for the 175 Leu in your wallet. Well, that is certainly better than 200 Leu and being dragged to traffic school in Constanta or somewhere. So, you pay. Note though: He cannot go too high with his demands–they are capped by the official level of robbery as well as what other officers in the area might demand. Because corruption is so out in the open in Romania, word spreads very quickly about who are the fair criminals with badges and who are the ones who really shake you down for everything. One thing to be a state-sanctioned thief; it’s a whole other thing to be state-protected, social pariah.

In that light, ponder then those corruption convictions in Chicago and greater Illinois: Almost without exception, those cases and convictions took place thanks to federal (i.e. national) government investigations. So a historically corrupt institution is in charge of oversight and prosecution of another notoriously corrupt institution. In addition, many powerful apparatchiks are players in both. Do you think Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth have a vested interest in uncovering all of the criminal deals that got them into the Senate? Please. How many of the real crimes taking place will ever see the sunlight of day?

The problem with American corruption is that Americans still suffer from the notion that government is redeemable. To realize that it is irredeemable is the start. There’s no savior on his way. Better the Romanian version. Clumsy, yes. Annoying to be sure. But, at least everyone can go on without living the delusion that the establishment is out to improve the lives of Americans or give them a fair shake or some other nonsensical platitude.

Whether graft receives attention, notoriety, convictions or not, said criminality is not something unnatural, attendant to the state. It is instead its modus operandi. Damn; there I go with the Latin again… Well, then how about some Greek in order to balance things out: Η αρχή είναι το πιο σημαντικό μέρος της δουλειάς. (The beginning is the most important part of the work.) -Plato, The Republic.