Even though I’ve been reading the news like a fiend about President Obama’s struggle to be the conciliator-in-chief that he is trying to be on this economic stimulus package and make due on his campaign promise, I seem to be at a loss as to what to write about. I can’t find any more people to make fun of since the election ended, and I’d like to be more critical of events rather than laud President Obama as I have in the past, despite his wonderfulness. So while there may not be the perfect confluence of events to create the perfect op/ed at this present moment, I will have to make-do with what’s going on with the world.
If there is one common thread that I’ve noticed it is that some people have been thinking they could get away with more than they deserve. With former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich being officially impeached and transformed into a political pariah, we start to shake our heads wondering how someone could think they could pull off a stunt of this caliber and somehow not get busted. I for one thought about President Nixon’s justification for the Watergate scandal as eloquently embodied by Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon”: “When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal!” It seems that Blagojevich wouldn’t hesitate to use that same thread of reasoning when asked why he did such a thing, except he would claim he could because of his power as governor.
Perhaps the conferring of power to an individual makes one do peculiar things we would never imagine doing without it, and when we start to skate on thin ice over the very promises we’ve made, maybe it is time to step outside the cocoon that has clouded our mortality. I am reminded by the cynical 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes and his famous work in the Leviathan, stating that we confer power to a Leviathan (also known as a monster) and create commonwealths in order to get out of the so called “state of nature.” Even though the people of Illinois elected Mr. Blagojevich as governor and conferred their power to him, he still seems stuck in the state of nature and believes that it is still a “war of all against all,” where anything goes and nothing is unjust. While I won’t be hesitant to admit that no matter who has political power it is war of all against all, maybe there’s a loophole in Hobbes’ thinking. But it is the personable qualities that Mr. Blagojevich has displayed throughout this scandal that are most suspect, none of which are above the law. As Hobbes would describe, “The laws of nature are immutable and eternal; for injustice, ingratitude, arrogance, pride, iniquity, acceptance of persons and the rest can never be made lawful.” Mr. Blagojevich has forgotten that he and his constituents have entered the social contract, and at that point he cannot assume that nothing is unjust.
He is at war! He does not seek peace, especially since he does follow and acknowledge the same laws that his constituents follow and acknowledge as well. Mr. Blagojevich really is the political monster that Hobbes is describing as his Leviathan. Worst of all, he won’t even confess to the corruption that has enveloped him, and instead chastises the Illinois legislature for bringing him to an impeachment trial where he tried to exonerate himself from any wrongdoing. If there’s one quote that would perfectly sum up this debacle, in which Mr. Nixon and Mr. Blagojevich could find a kindred spirit and grin, it is, as said by Larry Kerston, that “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but it rocks absolutely too.”