Cynicism and Politics

If one watches television or movies these days, there is a tendency to feel that an "honest politician" is an oxymoron along the lines of spare change. The news only further foments the belief that politics is a dirty game with a serious of greedy, power hungry vipers who will do anything to advance their cause -- which tends to be themselves. Citizens only amplified concerns that money now dominates the political landscape with more money spent on the last election than any in history. And yet President Obama won reelection against a windfall of cash and one of the most negative campaigns in history. That he has governed as if he won a narrow, rather than large, victory does little to dispel the notion that the people still have a say in the political process. And while popular opinion on the Congress is still at an all-time low, one has to believe that there are still a few politicians out there that actually struggle to represent the people that elect them.

And then yet another story comes out to reaffirm our cynicism, or as many people over the last few years have called it -- our realism. In this case, it is the race to replace Mayor Bloomberg in New York City and a scandal that has already seen six arrests: WP. Apparently, New York State Senator Malcolm Smith, a Democrat, was trying to buy his way unto the ballot as a Republican, with the help of City Councilman Dan Halloran in what U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called "an unappetizing smorgasbord of graft and greed involving six officials who together built a corridor of corruption stretching from Queens and the Bronx to Rockland County and all the way up to Albany itself." The two were bribing GOP party officials and went as far as threatening those they felt were not coming through on their promise. How did they get caught? Well, the intermediaries they were using for their scheme happened to be undercover agents. Following in the footsteps of Eliot Spitzer, those his crimes were of a more sexual nature (though they unfortunately involved state funds), the Democrats have done themselves few favors in the state, misappropriating funds and doing what they can to unseat Republicans. 

It was another victory for the press and the U.S. Attorney trying to clean up politics in a state that was once run by corrupt Tammany Hall and has never fully escaped it's metaphoric ties to that well-oiled Chicago political machine. Unfortunately, it was a loss for democracy. Can we take many more? The sad reality is cynicism begets cynicism and a retreat from civic engagement, thus providing further opportunities for the very corruption that begot the cynicism in the first place. It's no wonder that honest, well-intentioned leaders would shy away from the political process in the corrupt, media-vultured world we live in today, but we need them more than ever. Where are you Mr. Smith?