The Seven Deadly Sins and Politics

Leave it to Roman Catholic theology to give us the seven deadly sins as the root of all other evil. Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth complete this list. Of these, greed is a double-edged sword. Some measure of greed is almost necessary as motivation to achieve even worthwhile goals. Gordon Gekko, in the movie Wall Street, told us, “Greed is good.” His line was borrowed from convicted insider trader, Ivan Boesky who, in 1985 at UC Berkeley said, ”Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”

My misspent youth included penny-ante poker nights. In those late-night gatherings the expression, “Money talks, bullshit walks,” was meant to intimidate the weak with a whopping twenty-five cent raise. We have recently been reminded that money doesn’t just talk, it yells, screams, and can corrupt our legal system. Who among us mere peons would be free after ignoring a judicial gag order to not attempt to intimidate a jury or witnesses in our own trial for corruption. Of the seven deadly sins, sloth is the only one not enshrined in the personage of Donald J. Trump.

The US Supreme Court agreed with Gekko and Boesky when they decided that money was free speech as they lifted government restrictions on expenditures for political campaigns in Citizens United v. FEC. They truly ignored their earlier acknowledgment of the link between large financial contributions and corruption in Buckley v. Valeo of 1976. In that decision, the courts said there was a compelling interest in preventing corruption where individuals or corporations could make large contributions to candidates. They stated that our “representative democracy is undermined” by such financial influence.

These two SCOTUS decisions and others released the multi-armed Kraken of corruption. The Kraken as a symbol of corruption is quite appropriate as it was a creature of Scandinavian/Icelandic origin, corrupted by Hollywood as a monster for its two versions of Clash of the Titans. The movies featured the Greek god Zeus who has no connection to Scandinavia. Our mythical Kraken cephalopod was able to drag ships to their doom and it is currently positioned to pull down our democracy.

We now can look on with horror as those decisions bear fruit. A corrupt Supreme Court exists where judges may refuse to recuse themselves even when they have a pronounced bias, have taken huge bribes from interested parties, and have a wife with a fully documented agenda involving the decisions at hand. We have a former president and presidential candidate who uses his wealth and the wealth of others to avoid justice and defy court orders with chagrin. We have members of Congress who willingly or unwillingly turn a blind eye to corruption as a means of survival.

“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Greed is now the fuel by which our national engine runs, and corruption is the grease.” – Jack Dallas