The Price of Pragmatism

We are repeatedly told that money causes corruption: money used to campaign for or against a candidate will not only unduly influence election results (leaving aside the clear implication of a certain level of obtuseness among the electorate), but also corrupts the votes of the politician.  The idea that the politician can be bought is passed over for the idea that money can buy the politician!

Money, not principles, is often recognized as the source of power in the political system.

What must be examined is not the motivation of those trying to influence politics with money, but the ideas held by each politician, and the price at which he is willing to part with his principles.  What needs to be examined is his price for this political pragmatism.


For an eye-opening view on the evils of pragmatism, a philosophy in which the end justifies the means, read Saul Alinsky’s, Rules for Radicals.  I think it should be subtitled: How to Make Extortion, Fraud and Flatulence Work for You, but your take-away message may seem less ridiculous. You may rightly ask why you should pay any attention to such a book written in 1971. For one, our Secretary of State did her 92 page Wellesley thesis on the Alinsky model for community organizing,  and for another, while Saul Alinsky literally wrote the book on professional community organizing in Chicago, our President follows in his flexible ideological footprints.