Nuance is elitese for BS.

I moved to Mexico from the Washington D.C. area, a little over nine years ago.  Having lived inside of the beltway, for about 15 years, I am keen observer of American politics and wanted to share some observation from outside the borders.

As many people know, corruption is pretty widespread in Mexico.  It is so entrenched, in some cases, that it has become the traditional way of doing business.  I don't say this as a criticism, so much, as I have found some aspects of "corruption" to be time saving and productive.  It just is, what it is.  As a foreigner, it has taken some getting used to.  Personally, I have never been hit up for a bribe nor have I given one.  However, I have been put in business situations where the line was a little hazy and I had to look down to see if my feet had crossed over it. 

Having said that, Mexican corruption is, like Mexico, a socialist proposition.  Everyone from the highest ranking politician to the guy who reads your electric meter, gets in on the action.  The peso amounts differ, but the intention is the same.  Get something done the way you want it done, when you want it done.  Speeding?  Pay X now or go wait in line and pay 3 times X, later.  Bad grade in school?  Pay the teacher's water bill and do some extra homework.   Car accident?  Make sure you get to the cop, first.  Divorced, but want to marry in the Church?  Someone will annul your marriage for a nice donation.  Want to build a hotel in a nature reserve?  Well, I am not sure how that one works, but somehow it does.  Everybody is in on the action, as long as they pay tribute to the one standing one step above, on the ladder.

Which brings me to Chicago and its political machine.  Having done a lot of reading about the "machine", recently, I am struck by the similarities between the city and my adopted country.   It seems that all of the characters that keep coming up in Obama's life, are interconnected.  The community organizer who gets people worked up and screaming at the Feds, rather than at the local government.  The Reverand who attacks "the white man" and his "evil" government henchmen, while ignoring the fact that his congregation can't get their trash picked up.  The union bosses who win city contracts, over and over, while complaining that the non-union workers are unemployed or underpaid.  The city aldermen who vote the "machine" line and the State legislators who push through more and more ineffective programs at the expense of the rest of the State.  Even the unrepentant, domestic terrorist gets a shot at his piece of the pie, just by saying the right words and doing the machine's work. 

Where is the Pulitzer prize award winning expose on this?  Why is a hand-picked, groomed and packaged member of the machine a few electoral votes away from the Presidency?   How is it that this simpleton, thousands of miles away, can put the dots together, but the Washington Post, NY Times and the rest of the national media treat each case as a separate issue?  I don't wear a tin hat and I don't generally believe in conspiracy theories.  In this case, I think we are well beyond theory.