A Tale of Politicians & Psychopaths

by Dan Eden

www.viewzone.com

When I was in gradeschool, decades ago, we learned about government and politics. George Washington was a famous politician because he supposedly was incapable of telling a lie. "I cannot tell a lie. It was I who cut down the cherry tree." Abraham Lincoln was famous for ending slavery, an unpopular position at the time which caused the Civil War, but nonetheless was the high moral road to take.

It wasn't until I was in mid-life that the truth about politicians really hit me.

I lived in a small community in [redacted], Connecticut and worked in a small office building where Viewzone had a two room suite. The basement was occupied by an up-coming local politician who also ran an insurance business. The party affiliation isn't important -- that's not what this story is about. This particular politician started out as a Selectman but has since moved up the political ladder to the State level and, as far as I know, his future looks bright.

One evening I was working on a story and stayed late in the office to use the computer. At some point I heard someone scream and moan. It continued for almost an hour, reaching a crescendo and then diminution. Curious, I watched the politician leave with a redhead. His wife was a brunette.

This happened a couple of times a week, for many weeks. The redhead was replaced by blonds and raven hair, sometimes older and sometimes younger.

One night I was working late and someone knocked on the office door. It was my biker friend, "Big Jim." Jim saw my lights and told me he was going to a strip club in Hartford and bent my arm to come with him and stop being a "workaholic."

After several beers Jim made us sit on the "runway" and flashed a ten dollar bill at one of the dancers. She eagerly strutted her body in front of us and Big Jim was having the time of his life. Then, framed by two legs in fishnet stockings, I looked into the darkness of the bar to a small booth and made eye-contact with this same politician who was groping a scantly clad blond. His wife was a brunette.

Embarrassed to be there myself, I acknowledged our glances with a smile and raised my bottle of Rolling Rock. Minutes later a waitress brought us a half-dozen of the same, "Compliments of that man... huh? Well he was sitting right over there." He was gone.

A week later there was another late knock on the office door. It was him. He asked me to come down to his office. There, spread over the desk that was the source of the moans and groans he had a collection of charge card slips. I could see that he had circled some entries for bars, clubs and motels. His voice trembled, "The other night didn't happen. You didn't see me and you don't know anything about my personal life. Right?"

He was correct. It was none of my business what he did. I agreed and we shook hands.

Shortly after that I was speaking with a waiter friend named Duane. Duane worked at the local country club and told me about a very unusual dinner he had served which involved this certain town Selectman. He said all the "movers and shakers" were there, from Washington DC and other states. He said that they decided to back the Selectman because he "looked the part" and was "very cooperative" with their goals. He told me to keep an eye on this man because "Someday, who knows, he might even be president."

Years, no, decades have passed and I have moved all over the globe. I recently spoke with Big Jim and reminded him of that night in the strip club. I wondered what ever happened to the politician. He laughed. It seems he was doing well -- a Senator now -- and had recently gained the support of ultra-conservative Christians and had sponsored bills to "strengthen the family and marriage."

Not unusual

I know, it's not unusual for politicians to be involved in sex scandals. It's come to be a stereotypical behavior. But as you will learn, it's part of a bigger and more evil personality profile that we really ought to be very concerned about.

Sexual promiscuity is more than having a "good time." It reveals the ability to think of women as victims, of objects to be used for personal pleasure. It also shows that selfish motives rule the brain. In the case of politicians it also reveals a kind of malignant hypocricy, especially when one professes to support moral behavior.

Jim Kouri [right], vice president of the National Assn. of Chiefs of Police, has assembled a group of traits that define psychopathic personalities -- like serial killers -- and has discovered that these trait also apply to many of today's politicians.

Traits such as superficial charm, an exaggerated sense of self-worth, glibness, lying, lack of remorse, manipulation of others, and sexual obsession are the hallmark of both groups.

Kouri notes that these types of psychopaths are psychologically capable of committing their dirty deeds free of any concern for social, moral or legal consequences and with absolutely no remorse, save getting caught.

"While many political leaders will deny the assessment regarding their similarities with serial killers and other career criminals, it is part of a psychopathic profile that may be used in assessing the behaviors of many officials and lawmakers at all levels of government."

Psychopathy is a personality disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, intimidation, and occasionally violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own selfish needs. Although the concept of psychopathy has been known for centuries, the FBI leads the world in the research effort to develop a series of assessment tools, to evaluate the personality traits and behaviors attributable to psychopaths.

Interpersonal traits include glibness, superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and the manipulation of others. The affective traits include a lack of remorse and/or guilt, shallow affect, a lack of empathy and altruism, and failure to accept responsibility for what they do. The lifestyle behaviors include stimulation-seeking behavior, impulsivity, irresponsibility, parasitic orientation, and a lack of realistic life goals.

The relationship between psychopathy and serial killers is particularly interesting. All psychopaths do not become serial murderers. Rather, serial murderers may possess some or many of the traits consistent with psychopathy. Psychopaths who commit serial murder do not value human life and are extremely callous in their interactions with their victims. This is particularly evident in sexually motivated serial killers who repeatedly target, stalk, assault, and kill without a sense of remorse.

Some would argue that politicians do commit murder by their acts committing troops to wars that they know are unjust, or by legislation that impacts the vitality of their constituents. These acts are typical in "deal making" and usually are rewarded by some personal gain such as a campaign contribution from a lobby group or access to a prestigious government committee.

Another Connecticut politician comes to mind. I won't mention his name but he recently threw a wrench in the Health Care legislation that would have provided coverage to millions of poor families that cannot afford it -- almost certainly resulting in sickness and death -- for the personal gain of his campaign which is sponsored by insurance, pharmaceutical and health care providers. This gentleman can do this and continue to smile, apparently with no care for anyone but himself. But, hey, I don't want to name any names. His wife is blond.

There's enough finger pointing to go around. Remember the Weapons of Mass Destruction that weren't? That killed about a half-million civilians and over four-thousand US soldiers. How about Obama's promise to be transparent? Clinton's episode with Cuban Cigars? Dancing feet in a public toilet? Hiking trips to Appalachia? Hundreds of thousands of dollars in a freezer? Geez... I don't have enough web space to tell even a fraction of what goes on!

What happened to America? Yes, I know George Washington had slaves and wooden teeth. I know Abe Lincoln had syphilis. But they did their job representing the people in a way that was moral and honest. They never became disconnected from the awesome task of making a better world for the people who elected them.

Something has taken over in the recent history of our great nation. It is something evil. It appears to prefer flawed personalities because it can manipulate them with rewards of sex, wealth and power and, at the same time, threaten them with public disclosure and humiliation. These are the carrot and stick of the ego.

Perhaps John Kennedy, a man with many demons of his own, described this evil best:

"For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence -- on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match."

What is this evil? It is so strong that I cannot mention it by name. Believe me, I've tried. But you can easily understand what it is.

Who controls the Congress and Senate? Which group has the strongest lobby in Washington DC? Who is behind these immoral political decisions that hurt so many Americans? Who gains from these acts? Ask these questions and a common denominator will emerge. Yet, even as you realize who this is, you will feel their influence telling you to avoid believing it. You will be afraid to tell other people what you have learned, lest they too have been influenced to chastise you.

Recognition of evil is a very private affair. That is how they succeed.

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