America’s Image: Beacon of Light or Banana Republic?

Sleights of hand and behind the scenes chicanery are accepted as the mother’s milk of dictatorships and banana republics

America’s Image: Beacon of Light or Banana?

By John Lillpop
Tuesday, March 16, 2010

America has long been looked up to as a beacon of light in a world where corruption, greed, and tyranny often mock the very concepts of freedom, fairness, and rule of rule.

We were different, or so we thought, because of our Constitution, the balancing of power assured by having separate, but equal, branches of government, and a heritage of commitment to the rule of law.

Ours was not a government where matters of great importance were decided in dark, musty rooms by special interest sleaze merchants and elitist politicians willing to sell influence for personal enrichment rather than pursuing the common good.

Government “by and for the people,â€