So the mainstream media is shocked - just SHOCKED! I tell ya - over the "60 Minutes" expose last weekend about how corrupt "our" representatives are. According to the story, many Congress members in both parties have engaged in "insider trading" and profiting wildly on stocks and industries that they knew were soon to be regulated, subsidized, etc.
For example, the saintly Nancy Pelosi blocked a bill that would have prevented members of Congress from benefiting from insider knowledge since they are in charge of regulating industries and thus have intimate knowledge. Coincidentally, the following year, Pelosi padded her already lavish lifestyle with VISA stock during their IPO in 2008 as legislation threatening credit card companies made its way through the House. Pelosi bought stock at $44 a share. Three days later, it was $64 a share, and continued to rise.
John Boehner decided to get in on the action too. During the 2009 debates over Caesar's fascist medical care law, Boehner bought stock in health care insurance companies, all of which made money, just days before the public option was killed. In fact, there is a $100 million industry that exists in DC dedicated to "political intelligence" to help Congress make deals like this. No doubt these two examples are the rule, not the exception.
Why, if a private citizen did this, they would go to jail! goes the media narrative. It is always telling to see the media's portrayal of politicians when they get caught being the crooks that they are and are met with surprise that they aren't "public servants."
Bipartisanship at its finest. This is why I pray for gridlock.
But what doesn't get noticed is that the ability to commit acts which would be illegal if done by private citizens is the essence of the state. Its very existence depends on claiming the right to initiate force on peaceful and innocent people, on placing itself above the moral law that governs private society and the market order.
Theft is rebranded as taxation. Mass murder is referred to as war. Kidnapping is called an "arrest" when done by a cop. No other institutions may be allowed to compete for the services the state monopolizes, and you will pay for these services at whatever price they tell you or else face the threat or application of lethal force. Even if you don't want these services, or feel that, say, the military and police forces are committing vast injustices that you would never condone voluntarily, you must pay. Regulations, restrictions, and edicts must be followed religiously, or else. Ignore of the law is no excuse! The rules they make, of course, do not apply to them.
At the core of state power is this moral Bizarro World. Whether you believe that a state must exist or not, it is the nature of government to use evil means (non-defensive force) to achieve desired ends.
Is it any surprise that Congressmen, isolated from the rest of the country in their DC box of bribes, lobbyists, and thuggery, would abuse this power to initiate force on others? To ask it is to answer it.
The only real surprise is the outrage that comes from the state's stenographers in the media.
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