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It's The Elite Who Are Corrupt
King Features Syndicate ^ | 06/10/02 | Charley Reese

Posted on 06/09/2002 10:34:35 PM PDT by GalvestonBeachcomber

Most Americans are so steeped in egalitarian thinking that they like to delude themselves that they share in running the country. We ordinary folks, in fact, don't run the country and have a slim-to-none chance of even influencing its direction.

Thomas R. Dye, a professor at Florida State University, has made a study of power. Since power in our country resides in institutions, he defines individuals with power as those who occupy the top positions in the government and in corporate, legal, educational, civic and cultural institutions.

He found that there are only about 7,000 of these positions in the entire United States, and some individuals occupy more than one of them. It might sound unbelievable at first, but if you think about it, you will see that it is true.

In a newspaper, for example, there is one position of power: the publisher. Now, he delegates some of his power to other people, but everyone knows that all decisions are ultimately his and his alone.

In the federal government there are only 546 positions of power. These include the president, the vice president, members of the House and Senate and the nine members of the Supreme Court. One hundred percent of the power of the federal government resides in these individuals who occupy the 546 positions. Everybody below them operates with delegated power. That is so because all power of the federal government comes from the Constitution, and these are the only constitutional offices. I don't include federal-, district- and appellate-court judges because any decision they make can be overturned by the Supreme Court.

So the individuals who occupy these 7,000 positions of power are the elite who run the country. Therefore, it is the character of these members of the elite that will determine the character of the country. What you see in government policies, in cultural products and in education policies are the direct result of the decisions made by this relatively small elite.

History affirms this. The reason America did not follow the usual path of revolution to dictatorship was solely the result of the character of one man, George Washington. Washington could have easily made himself dictator, and many of the officers in his army wanted him to do just that. But Washington's character would not allow it.

When the elite who run a country have good morals and high standards, then you have a good country. If the elite become corrupt, you have a corrupt country. The vulgarity, profanity and violence you see in entertainment are there only because those individuals occupying the positions of power in the entertainment industry said "Yes." If they said "No," those things would disappear from the screens and the magazine racks.

Our problem is that most of our elite have become corrupted. Many are nihilistic and hedonistic. The leadership of a country always leads the masses, and they can lead them to high ground or into the swamps. And there's not much I can see that ordinary people can do about it.

I have to confess that I have lost my Jeffersonian faith in the people. All I have ever seen them do, save for a few individuals, is follow like dogs whoever happened to be in leadership positions at the time.

Given the moral and intellectual climate at most of the elite universities our future leaders will attend, I don't have an optimistic outlook for the future of the country.


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: corrupt; elite
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To: philetus
Nope; wrong ! Those who use wealth as a slur / who say that everyone who has wealth and / or position is corrupt, a thief, didn't get either honestly, is using MARXIST tactics ; whether they know it or not.

By all means, feel free to disagree with me; just don't make silly claims, which are indeed straight out of Marx's handbook for prols. :-)

61 posted on 06/11/2002 2:20:01 AM PDT by nopardons
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To: nopardons
"Those who use wealth as a slur / who say that everyone who has wealth and / or position is corrupt"

I see your one of those people who see what they want and ignore the rest.

I did NOT say that Everyone who has wealth...etc.

I was saying the f*&%^rs who are running the country are flushing it for their own gain.

62 posted on 06/11/2002 2:26:38 AM PDT by philetus
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To: nopardons
The founders whom you name were the only ones allowed to vote. As the franchise has been extended, more people vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. Now, the political elites are whoever can find the most people who want something they don't have and promising to give it to them: George Bush, the Clintons, the Kennedys. Publicly subsidized education has given us Peter Singer and Cornel West. Fiat money, artificially cheap credit and other government distortions of the economy has given us Enron, Tyco, Global Crossings, etc.

In all these venues of course, one can still find thoughtful, industrious, moral people. However, the pernicious influence of democracy has resulted in an elite who, by and large, are midgets compared with the elites of the past.

63 posted on 06/11/2002 4:22:12 AM PDT by SteamshipTime
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To: flyingmuslim
Spoken like someone who has never been in a deposition or involved with a multi-year lawsuit. Once you get to see the legal system close up and personal you'll soon learn just how truly corrupt America really is.
68 posted on 06/11/2002 11:57:00 AM PDT by Billy_bob_bob
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To: GalvestonBeachcomber
This guy omited other leaders, those of crowds of people.
69 posted on 06/11/2002 11:59:51 AM PDT by lavaroise
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To: the new spoosman
I'm new here... what are you saying exactly? FreeRepublic is mentioned on Rush, etc. and seems well-known. How has it changed? For the better, I hope. The posts I've read so far are all fairly harmless.
71 posted on 06/11/2002 12:17:14 PM PDT by CecilRhodesGhost
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To: flyingmuslim
Oh, so you're a lawyer. Well, that takes care of that. Say whatever you want to, I won't be listening. I don't care what lawyers have to say. It has been my experience that they have little regard for the truth.
72 posted on 06/11/2002 12:17:15 PM PDT by Billy_bob_bob
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