Brown Sludge

Why Democratic Corruption Doesn’t Matter

June 15th, 2006

My younger brother and I are six years apart. As I approach middle age six years seems so small. In another year or two we’ll both be in our “forties”. At this stage of our lives we’re effectively the same age as we face the same deteriorations, the same struggles, the same challenges.

I have many dear memories of our time together as kids, and I’m sentimental enough to wish we could enjoy our relationship like we used to, even though family politics and adult life conspire to keep us from being as close as I wish we were.

Six years seems trivial at this stage of our lives, but when we were much younger, it mattered a great deal more. When I was 13 and he was 7 I was almost twice as old as he was, and being the “Big Brother” was important to me. Watching over my “Little Brother” was something I took seriously then, and although it would embarrass him to hear me say so, I still see myself in that roll today.

One of the things I remember most about the times when I was truly his “Big Brother” was the truly outrageous double standard that my parents seemed to apply to our behavior.

If he did something improper they often would smile to themselves and comment on how “cute” it was. If I attempted to join him in that behavior their demeanor darkened and I was scolded. Pleas of “He did it TOO!” were met with stern looks and lectures. You see… even though I had only done what I had seen him get away with, my sin was worse because “I should have known better.”

If he started a fight, and I went and told on him. I was scolded for being a snitch.
If I started the fight, and he went and told on me, I was scolded for “picking on someone smaller”.
If he started a fight, and I actually fought back, he’d snitch on me, and I got scolded for “picking on someone smaller”. “HE started it!” was never an excuse for smacking around someone at a disadvantage.

It didn’t take the little fart-knocker long to catch on to this, and over the years he took full advantage of the tilted playing field.

At the time I raged against the perceived injustice in all of it, but as I matured I realized that my Father’s exasperated lectures on “being older” and “knowing better” and them having “higher expectations” of me because I was older and more mature and should be “setting a good example” contained more wisdom than I liked to admit.

I think of my Father’s wise words whenever I see a conservative blogger, or right leaning politician trying hard to point out to the public that the Democrats are in the news for their own scandals and corruption, and that the Republican’s are hardly alone.

The functional equivalent of the infantile “He did it too!”

In the end, pointing out that the Democrats are equally corrupt is ultimately futile, and not a very grown up way to approach the image problem that many of the current scandals that are dogging the GOP.

Because, like my wise old Dad used to say “we should be setting a better example.”

When a someone reads in the news or sees on the television or hears on the radio that a Democrat has been caught red-handed in a legal or ethical scandal, they give a sad little smile and shake their heads they way parents do at immature and wayward children. The behavior is disappointing, but not entirely unexpected.

But when a conservative crosses the line, it’s much more serious. You see the public sees us as being the older brother, and therefore holds us to a higher standard of behavior. And they should. To whom much is given, much is expected.

One of the reasons that Republicans are flagging so much in the polls right now is that we’re seen as being no better than the Democrats on many policy and ethics issues, and we’ve abdicated our position as the older and more mature brother that doesn’t stoop to immature antics and the “They did it too!” defense.

It’s time for us on the right to stop defending the poor behavior of our brethren on the right side of the aisle with these pale and immature excuses, and reclaim our status as the older brother who “knows better” and who “sets a good example”.

Perhaps then we on the right will earn back the right that every real brother aspires too, and that’s to be looked up to by the younger brother that he loves.

Entry Filed under: General, The Right Has It Wrong, Thoughts