Crooks I Have Known

     During my newspaper career I was acquainted with several crooks. This was strictly for professional reasons (mine not theirs).  They were not the violent sort. They were con artists, white-collar chiselers, petty thieves and grifters.
     Some had retired, or so they said. Others admitted that they were probably just between jail terms. Whatever their game, they shared one trait: They lacked a normal perception of moral and ethical boundaries.
      They knew that their behavior was at odds with societal rules. They just didn't believe, in their hearts, that their behavior was altogether wrong.  If others were victimized, the victims were culpable for not effectively protecting themselves and their property. Finders keepers, so to speak, even if the finding was done inside someone else's purse.  Little obligation was felt to refrain from doing what others didn't prevent.
      I think about this ethic sometimes when I watch the people in charge of our national government. Among them, an historic dearth of ability has been matched by a shortage of character.
      Elaboration on the character of the president is a challenge, as pejorative vocabulary is so quickly exhausted.  He  is the kind of man well reared children are taught to avoid.  With him, for now, we have a Congress that treats the American people as if we were dupes in a sidewalk shell game.
     A prime exhibit  would be the new tax law, which Republicans whooped through in haste and secrecy that kept the public from comprehending it. They now hope propaganda can persuade voters not to worry their pretty little heads about proper governance.  The emerging message says: Grab a short-term windfall, go shopping, and re-elect your sugar daddies in the fall.
     Nor should we overlook the blame-game opera of government shutdown, in which the worthies maneuvered to put a thumb on the scales of the November election.  With serial chicanery in Congress and serial mendacity in the White House, we are receiving a revelation of sorts.  The folks in charge have chosen the base side of the difference between leading people and herding them.
     This view of the consent of the governed gives license. Lawmaking is guided not by principle, but by the odds of voters making a nuisance of themselves.  And if voter consent is obtained by slippery method -- well, caveat emptor. Little obligation is felt to refrain from doing what the electorate doesn't prevent.
     Pundits who lament a failure of bipartisan spirit are speaking imprecisely, in my opinion. The true lapse is from a duty to govern in the broader interest of all the people. In just one example, Republicans who crow that their tax law will harm Democrats politically are thumbing their noses at the citizens who elected the Democrats.
     With complicity by leaders sworn to do better, our government has been Balkanized. Candidates and officeholders sing the tune of one faction or another. Zealous interests war outright against cohesion. A whole greater than the sum of its parts is not built. But the greater whole is, of course, the very idea of America.
     For this dismal circumstance there is blame enough to go around. An extra portion goes to  Republican leaders in Congress. They set a tone by working cynically for eight years to undermine a duly elected Democratic president. Now in power, they settle for ginning out cheap maneuvers while their own party's president challenges the gag reflex of the  world.
     History will call the lot of them authors of an epochal disgrace.