Way back when, in the golden age of the grifter, confidence crime was not persued by police or the federal authorities. Why? Because nobody considered it a crime. If you were stupid enough to be taken, you deserved it.
Years later, the bunko laws put all that to rest, putting famous conmen–like the very real Henry Gondorf–in prison for a very long time. When it became too dangerous to pull the long cons, the golden age of the grifter died, leaivng us nothing buy Hollywood’s interpretation of this strange American hero.
These days, I submit to you that these days, political corruption scandals are in the same boat. Nobody cared about confidence crime then and nobody cares about political crime now.
Did the Republicans cheat to win the 2004 election. You bet they did.
Does anybody give a single shit? Hell no.
I’m not a Democrat and I’m not a Republican. I’ve voted for a Republican in the Presidential election more times than I’ve voted for a Democrat. I sympathize with many Republican ideals, just as I sympathize with many Democratic ideals.
But we don’t have Democrats or Republicans in office anymore. What we have are criminals. Not even that. We have conmen. Because until we, the people, make what they do illegal, until we actually start giving a shit about it, it won’t be a crime. And they won’t be criminals.