R. Emmett Tyrrell: Newt’s War Against Corruption

WASHINGTON — Politicians are rarely competent writers. They are often not writers. This is why they have speechwriters. John F. Kennedy was a great writer. For his book, he actually won the Pulitzer Prize “Profiles in Courage,” The book was written by Ted Sorensen. Sorensen was one his speechwriters.

We are lucky to have politicians today who can read a book. Newt Gingrich is one of the few politicians who can read and write books. He also writes columns for newspapers, which I recommend to you. H.L. Mencken used this phrase in the 1920s. Newt’s column was darkly titled “America Is Becoming a Corrupt Country.” Newt writes extremely well. I would vote for him if he had written last week as well many years ago. We might not have seen him in The American Spectator’s pages, where the column was published. It is worth reading. It’s about America’s corruption epidemic. In just a few sentences, he covered many types of malfeasance.

Newt’s first statement was, “America has been drifting toward a level of corruption incompatible with a free society and a free-market economy.” He stated that political and economic freedom depends on honesty. “a sense of trust” This is among the general public. This “sense of trust” According to Newt, the public is losing their faith in government. California was the victim of $20 billion in thefts from its unemployment compensation program. He continues. “If you assumed the average theft was $200,000, that would require 100,000 people willing to be thieves.” This is a lot of thieves roaming free in one state. There are 50 states and territories in the Union. Newt then turns to “petty theft on a grand scale (which) has become a way of life for tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of people.”

He next considers the corruption big leagues. “In this context,” Newt: “the Hunter Biden-Biden family pattern of influence peddling is just one more example of a country sliding into the acceptance of criminality as the norm.” He then adds the coup de grace “Beginning with the Bill Clinton presidency, we shifted focus from the morally right to what you can get away with.” Newt ends with Max Bialystock’s words “The Producers”: “When you’ve got it, flaunt it.”

Newt did a great job with minimal bombast. He drew out a country that was in decline in nearly every category. This has been done before in America. However, the forces for reform were always on the horizon ready to remove the “muck”, as it was known. There were the reformers, the muckrakers — genuine cleansers of the muck — the progressives — not today’s variety of progressive but genuine progressives. All were civic-minded citizens who wanted to change the system. This included Teddy Roosevelt in politics, Lincoln Steffens, and Ida Tarbell. Although they did sometimes come up with inapplicable reforms, their high-mindedness ensured that clean government was respected and worked. America was one the most corrupt countries in the world. It is now one of the most corrupt.

Take a look at the examples of corruption that were cited above. Bill Clinton was able to get away with it “it” Simply state that “they all did it.” By simply not paying attention, the Bidens can get away with their influence-peddling. “it” And expecting the media and public to accept their corruption. It seems to be working so far. Newt’s protest, published last week, may not be the end of what Roosevelt and Steffens started decades ago as a protest for clean government.

The problem is that all the instruments for assuring clean government — the government regulatory bureaus, the private organizations such the American Civil Liberties Union, the reform movements such as Common Cause — are as corrupt as the groups they try to keep an eye on. Newt Gingrich may be the one to start an anti-corruption movement, but it will not be enough for him in the years ahead. Good luck, Newt.

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R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., founder and editor in chief at The American Spectator, is also the author. He is a Senior Fellow with the London Center for Policy Research. “The Death of Liberalism,” Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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