In an article Peggy Noonan wrote last weekend about the President Trump/Ukraine story, she made a comment that seemed relevant to Illinois:
“In the end, in purely practical political terms, the one person who will be hurt by this story will be Joe Biden. Every telling of this story necessitates pointing out that Mr. Biden’s son Hunter had cozy financial relationships with other countries, including Ukraine. It’s real swamp stuff. It looks bad, say the former vice president’s friends. No, it is bad.
It is infuriating that members of America’s leadership class so often show themselves to the world as self-enriching. As a nation we spent the 20th century presenting ourselves to the world as a truly moral leader, a self sacrificing country, one to be looked up to. In the 21st century our political figures and their families too often look like scrounging grifters – Americans with connections who can be hired, who leverage connections to fame for profit. There’s a fairly constant air of soft corruption, of an easy, seamy reality of big-power back scratching. …
There should be something called the Class Act. If you have any class, you don’t profit financially from a relative in power in the world’s greatest democracy. You don’t embarrass your country that way. Because, you know, you have class. You’re lucky to be from a respected family. A president or vice president might say, ‘It’s unfair to make my child sacrifice a deal because of what his father does!’ Actually, no one asked you to ask for power; no one told you to want it. If you get it, it’s an honor. Do your job. Yes, your family should sacrifice, as should you.”
Of course, the main difference between Illinois and what Ms. Noonan wrote about regarding the Bidens, is that in Illinois it’s not just relatives who profit from a person’s position in power. In Illinois, sometimes it’s the person themselves. Sure, relatives of people in power in Illinois get jobs. But in Illinois, the people in power are grifters, too. They make money in their non-government businesses because at least some people think that the connections the politicians have from their government jobs will enable them to get a better result for the clients in their non-government jobs. That may not be true, and the politician may never tell anybody it is. But the problem is that the people think they will get a better result and that’s why they hire the politician. There may not be any technical corruption, but it looks like corruption and it feels like corruption. And it makes people think government is for sale.1 Which is the problem.
I think Ms. Noonan hit it on the head when she said, in response to the idea that it’s unfair to make a politician’s child or other relative sacrifice because of what the politician does: “[N]o one asked you to ask for power; no one told you to want it. If you get it, it’s an honor. Do your job. Yes, your family should sacrifice, as should you.”
If that is true for high-level politicians in Washington, it should be true for high-level politicians in Illinois, too. If you want the position, that means you don’t get to do a private job on the side where it looks like you might be using some of the connections from your public job to help in your private job. Because, even if you aren’t doing that, the mere fact that it looks like you could is enough to create an appearance of corruption. That appearance of corruption, and the actual corruption that so often comes with it in Illinois, tarnishes everything and everybody in the state.
If you want a high-level position, go for it. But if you get it, give up the private job that makes it look like you are using connections from your public position to help your private business. Because even if you would never do that, and even if it is legal to hold both jobs, it is wrong.
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1 And in Illinois, it too often is, as can be seen by all of the convicted former politicians we have.
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