Patrick Kennedy's Historical Drive In To A Barricade

I was watching the history of the Roman Empire on (of course) the History Channel yesterday. And it basically was the story of one dysfunctional or corrupt or tyrannical Emperor after the other (and the power hungry women who loved them) and I got to thinking - why do we expect so much from our modern day politicians? Clearly the Roman emperors had (in a joint sense) every bad quality a person put in power could ever have - they often womanized, the often killed (some killed a lot), and they often took advantage. In short, they mostly just took advantage of their positions of power. They got the six-on-the-side-lovers, the special in-palace-running-water, and the right to exercise their natural and dominant tendencies to be in charge (I learned that Emperor Claudius had no such tendancies - he hid behind a curtain after Emperor Gaius was killed by his own guards and was then literally forced to be the new Emperor).
So here we are in this modern “civilized” society (my kids have a Sony Play Station) and we expect so much from our representatives. We demand their integrity and honesty. And we’re so outraged when they get caught playing Emperor. But why? On the basis of what? Has man’s morality really evolved all that much since the Roman Empire? Wasn’t it just a handful of decades ago that a guy maned Hitler tried to forcibly and violently take over the world? So our guys (and I live in America but your guys in other so called civilized nations should easily follow the paradigm) are suddenly going to change from historical trends and not only really CARE about the people, but care enough to focus on the people’s needs and not their own? What a joke. When politicians get caught taking bribes, smoking pot, killing someone (how many people do you know personally who die under mysterious circumstances?) or shacking up with their sixteen year old intern, it’s nothing but the HISTORICAL NORM. They’re just following suit. It’s only by the sheer fact that they’re no longer held above the law that they don’t OPENLY engage in the Roamesq things of the past. In fact when they do get caught they seen to find ways to use their positions to get out of trouble anyway. I wonder what would happen if a guy named Rocco Fabricchi the plumber from Brooklyn ran his beat up Toyota in to his neighbor’s fence and then said, “Oops I took some sleeping pills and don’t remember a thing.” What about if you ran your car off a bridge with your brother’s former secretary in side and left her to die? You do nothing for nine hours and they charge you with nothing but “leaving the scene of an accident”? Would they just charge you and me with “leaving the scene of an accident”? Or would you get at least a vehicular or negligent homicide charge? Well you get the picture. The new age politicians are doing just like the Roman Emperors - they’re just doing it quietly in the background with a nice custom made suit. We need o learn from human history and stop expecting so much.