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Was Vernon The Corrupter or the Corrupted?

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

Vernon Jackson, of Louisville, Kentucky, recently pleaded guilty to bribing William Jefferson, a U.S. Congressman from Louisiana, for which Vernon was sentenced to seven years in prison.  Apparently, Vernon and his wife also made sizeable contributions to the Sanchez sisters in California, which was within the law but may also have been designed to buy influence.  Jackson said he was trying to provide technology that would help disadvantaged communities and was trying to obtain government contracts to sell that technology with the help of Congressman Jefferson.  However, Jefferson said he would not continue to help Jackson secure the contracts unless Jackson gave him money, and Jackson complied with Jefferson’s request.  According to The Courier-Journal, the judge admonished Jackson at his sentencing, "Most, if not all, the blessings we enjoy as Americans is attributable to the rule of law, which only makes sense if public officials are not corrupt."

I knew Vernon years ago, when he hired me to obtain patent protection for his technology (U.S. Patent No. 5,537,142), so I was sorry to see that he had been involved in some shady dealings and probably would be going to prison.  Yes, Vernon obviously was trying to buy influence with a politician, but that is a commonplace occurrence these days.  For example, Hilary’s miraculous investment returns and her huge front-end payment for her book, and the large lobbying fees collected by Tom Daschle’s wife come to mind as ways in which people currently get money into the hands of politicians in order to buy influence.  The only difference between those situations and Vernon’s exploits is that Vernon’s were less sophisticated and thereby illegal, while the other folks were a bit more savvy and managed to stay legal.  In any case, because government has so much power over our lives, it is a rich breeding ground for corruption, both of the legal and illegal types, and the effect is the same whether the influence is peddled carefully, so as to be legal, or whether it is peddled in a less sophisticated manner, except that the less sophisticated folks may end up in jail while the others just line their pockets.

I used to think it was terrible that some people in Eastern Kentucky would go to the polls and hang around waiting for a politician to pay them to vote, but now I realize that this is just less sophisticated than the people who vote for the politicians who promise them the most pork from the public trough.  Again, the only real difference is the simplicity and lack of sophistication, and, of course, the people who are paid directly for their votes know full well they are being bought and are corrupt, while those who vote for the distributors of pork often think themselves very virtuous and even generous (with other people’s money, of course). 

Even people who are neither buying nor selling votes or influence may be involved in the corruption if they support the government powers that are being peddled.  For example, zoning laws are considered by political science folks to be the biggest corrupters of government officials.  This should not come as any surprise, since a zoning decision can make a huge difference in the value of a piece of property, from causing the property to be essentially worthless to causing it to be very valuable, depending upon the uses of the property that the zoning board allows.  So, of course, the property owner has a huge incentive to find a way to influence the folks who make those decisions, and the people who make those decisions have a huge temptation to allow themselves to be influenced.  That puts the people who support the enactment of zoning ordinances in a position similar to that of pimps – they don’t directly buy or sell influence themselves; they just create and enable the circumstances in which the corrupt transactions occur.  (Of course, there is a difference in that the pimps know they are enabling corruption, while the supporters of zoning laws often think themselves virtuous.)

Putting people like Vernon in jail merely gives the appearance that we continue to respect the rule of law, while all kinds of corruption and influence peddling continue to thrive.  The only way we can really reduce the corruption and return to a system in which there is true respect for the rule of law is to reduce the temptation and opportunity for corruption by severely reducing the power of government.

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