The con men of Capitol Hill are sapping the confidence of the country. That seems contradictory, but building confidence on deception is the surest way to destroy it. That's what the public, whose "approval" rating of Congress is now in the single digits, preceives as corrupt, perhaps because the diddle is so large it can't be missed. Congress is cheating us.
Unfortunately, whenever someone finds out she's being cheated, the usual response is "why me?" Maybe that's pride speaking, to assume that one must have done something wrong to prompt an abuse of trust. Whatever the reason, it gives the con an advantage for the cheated to think they're now even--much as the rich pol has an advantage when citizens think, because he's already rich, he'll have no reason to steal.
We presume people are rational even when they are clearly not. Perhaps the culture of obedience provides an unmistakeable clue. Because, when obedience (or any virtue, for that matter) is coerced, then the demand is likely irrational. There's no reason to object to something within reason and thus no need to coerce. So, coercion, however gentle or persuasive, should serve as a signal that something's amiss.
Anyone calling for sacrifice should be shown the door. "Hard choices" is a euphemism that should ring a bell. When good is on the agenda, the choice is not hard. It's only when who's to be screwed first is the choice that it's hard. Hard to know who's going to retaliate on the spot. That's why they go for the weak.
You'd think there would be little satisfaction in stealing from the poor. But, that's just it. The poor have obviously been stolen from before. So, they're used to it, even as they think it's not worth stealing from them any more. The cowardly cons count on it.
But, if the cons on Capitol Hill hadn't put the country on short rations, it wouldn't matter how much money the diddlers get away with. It wasn't the forty trillion that was lost in the crash that made the big dent; it was all the fraud that diddled people out of their jobs and homes. Dollars are easy to replace; confidence is not.