Not just the left surely?

The Five on Fox is car crash television if, as I am, centre left in your political outlook, there isn't one subject that cannot be spun around and around until it becomes the 'left's' fault. Of course the phrase 'the left' is about as meaningful as 'them' or 'Government' it's shorthand for all that is wrong at one particular time with one particular group of individuals.

That said I find the show entertaining because it offers what Lester Bangs would have called 'think pieces', they aren't always polemics and they aren't all the political equivalent of badger baiting, one such 'think piece' took place this week on the night of the death of Hugo Chavez. There wasn't much subtlety attempted in trying to link the previous discussion on Barack Obama's style of bigger Government with the politics of Chavez, I don't know whether or not everybody watching would have grasped the link but it certainly didn't need much joining of the dots.

Anyway during the discussion on Chavez the main target of the groups ire were those Americans who had supported the dictator and Greg Gutfield asked 'why is it always lefties who end up supporting corrupt Governments?' It was one of those little think bombs that Gutfield likes to drop into conversation just to take our minds off Kimberly Guilfoyle's legs, lips or boobs - or all three (or should that be all six?) and it got me wondering how true it was.

It has occurred to me, over the past six months, that in the States right wing now means small Government and individuals taking responsibility for themselves - similar to our own Conservative party but that doesn't preclude corruption until you have defined what corruption is. Corruption in left wing countries seems to be in your face, not very subtle and a gradual move from socialism (other right wing isms are available) to a stage where only those in power have access to the resources and means that allows the 'benefits for all' popular ideology to collapse or reach a point of total dependency for those who are subjugated. Right wing corruption seems to be much more subtle, nepotism, executive directorships, honorary positions are obtained with almost obscene haste by those leaving power or even those still in power as we have seen during the life of the current UK coalition Government. We also know the high levels of corruption (bribes both subtle and not so subtle) that take place in the name of free market capitalism around the world.

Where I agree with Gutfield is that more often than not the victims of left wing corruption are always almost without fail those who had little or no economic independence in the first place. Right wing corruption often takes long to work its way down through the economy, a politician who campaigns for a particular law whilst accepting large backhanders knows or at least believes that he is playing the old 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' style of business that goes on all over the world and that whilst the end consumer will be affected it be long after his name is forgotten.