The Greed in Politics

Photo taken from obama,net
By: Chris Valletta

According to www.foxnews.com, the former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is in big trouble with the law because of his insatiable desire for power. This past Wednesday he was convicted on charges that he illegally moved money from corporate funding towards Texas political candidates in 2002. The resulting penalty could be decades in prison. The charge that the jury found DeLay guilty of was money laundering, a direct display of his pleasure for power and money. In response to the verdict, DeLay said "This is an abuse of power. It's a miscarriage of justice, and I still maintain that I am innocent." Interestingly, DeLay here states that in fact the other side is abusing its power.

This shows that pleasure's role has an impact on both sides of the argument because for many, power represents the pleasure of being at the top and in charge of other's actions. In total, DeLay was able to funnel over $190,000 dollars in funds. Many believe that this money directly contributed to Texas Republicans taking control over the state that year. This is yet another example of how pleasure has revealed its ugly face into politics, where often times people's guilty pleasure of power and money overtake anything else as the most important piece on their agenda. Now DeLay will pay the price in prison as a result of his actions.