Building a culture against corruption
by Anna Keller, editor
Chris Campbell is running for U.S. Senate with the Kentucky Party. During a combative December 17 interview by Andrew Cooperrider on Kentucky's Voice, Cooperrider argued corruption is not a legitimate target for political action. "A third party is not going to solve people going bad."
Cooperider's stance surprised listeners who agreed when in his opening segment he strongly decried corruption by the legislature and governor in bringing the dodgy Glendale/Ford battery-manufacturing plant to Kentucky.
Cooperrider's question is an important one for the Kentucky Party to discuss, however: "We live in a fallen world. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.... What is the platform Kentucky Party members are supposed to be held accountable to?"
The platform
The short answer is in the Kentucky Party bylaws, Article II, sections A-F. In short (the bylaws contain more detail):
A. The KYP supports and upholds the rule of law.
B. The KYP is nonviolent and is committed to nonviolence.
C. The KYP shall recruit and run candidates at all levels through the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
D. The KYP supports equality of opportunity for everyone in the Commonwealth.
E. The KYP will actively work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that public representatives are fully accountable to the people of the Commonwealth.
F. The KYP shall maintain open records to the greatest extent possible.
The Kentucky Party holds Campbell and our other candidates accountable to these principles: Lawfulness, diplomacy, electoralism, egalitarianism, participatory democracy, accountability, and transparency. The platform clearly states we believe in the wisdom of Kentucky's people, and believe just as strongly in the common good.
The platform says nothing about abortion, the death penalty, or other issues guaranteed to divide the electorate. A Kentucky Party candidate may believe, like Campbell, in "total bodily autonomy" (this editor strongly disagrees with him), or may agree with Cooperrider that abortion is mass murder. Either opinion must be tempered by two disciplining factors: 1. Abortion is out of the US Senate's hands since the Supreme Court gave jurisdiction to the states, and 2. The Kentucky Party platform subjects candidates' views to the corrective action of the Kentuckians they represent, not moneyed special interests.
Promoting integrity
The deeper question for Kentucky Party members to consider is, How do we promote greater integrity in corrupted public offices? The outsider answer is good enough to start -- replace the most corrupt. But Cooperrider's point stands. Should our Chris Campbell beat the Republican nominee, how will he challenge corruption and maintain his integrity in office?
This question became more pointed yesterday, when the Supreme Court legalized bribery of politicians, so long as the payment comes after the favor and the briber doesn't call it a bribe. Now the first item in the Kentucky Party platform, lawfulness, serves as even less of a bulwark against corruption.
The linked law review opens with a quotation from George Mason at the Constitutional Convention: "If we do not provide against corruption, our government will soon be at an end."
There are two ways to provide against corruption. First, corrective measures include laws and regulations, ethics committees, and inspectors general. These find corruption and aggressively prosecute it. Campbell should work aggressively to strengthen these corrective measures. The punishment of vice, however, has long been known to be inferior to the cultivation of virtue.
The Kentucky Party has only become possible and necessary because the main political parties in Kentucky neglected maintenence of their organizations, failed to promote virtue in their ranks, relied on multiplying statutes and ordinances and the threat of punishment, and promoted leadership who failed to lead by virtuous example.
Should the Kentucky Party follow suit, it would be better had it never been.
This article, like all original content in The Kentuckian, is released into the public domain. The Kentuckian is an independent publication. It doesn't represent the opinion of the Kentucky Party or any of its committees.