One of the great features about freedom of speech as interpreted and imposed upon our culture by liberal Democrats is their demand that anything be said unfiltered anywhere. I use the adjective “great” not because I am thrilled with being bombarded with the vile vulgarity that streams constantly from the left into mainstream discourse, but because the more that liberals talk and write, the more they slip up and expose who and what they really are.

Such is the case with a recent McClatchy newspaper “Pro and Con” question: “Was Barney Frank right when he asserted that Congress erred by rushing healthcare reform?” (Kokomo Tribune, May 6, 2012, p. D4) Wayne Madsen, a contributing writer to the Online Journal and an author of several books with a “progressive perspective,” responded for the week’s progressive-liberal / liberal-progressive viewpoint denouncing Rep. Frank’s comment. Indeed, Mr. Madsen sharply denounced Congressional leadership of the time for losing courage and failing to pass and impose upon formerly free Americans the more radical, government-controlled single-payer healthcare law.

In this context, Mr. Madsen revealed more truth about liberal ideology and the party of their minions as he wrote:

Democrats as a whole would have been better off, if they had taken the advice of legendary Tammany Hall boss George Washington Plunkitt, and indulged in a little honest graft.

Here exposed for all the world to see and understand is an honest look into the actual machinations of liberal ideology and Democrat politics. These are the political party and ideology that portray themselves as champions of fairness and justice and equality. They claim to eschew wealth and power, declaring them the sources of virtually all that plagues the world today. They decry successful people at every turn and seek to replace them with the “poor and the downtrodden.” At least, that is their populist, public face.

The face that they try not to expose in public, except that they can never completely cover their DNA, is their hypocritical polar opposite. As Mr. Madsen has revealed, and as is consistent every time the left takes the rope they are handed, the reality of liberalism and their Democrat party minions is about anything but fairness and justice and equality. It is certainly not about lifting the poor and oppressed out of their mire. His reference to Tammany Hall and one of its “bosses” is a clear indication of that.

There is only one image of Tammany Hall consistent with history, and that is summed up nicely in a description of a board game of the same name: “Tammany Hall is a board game of backstabbing, corruption, temporary alliances and taking power at all costs. If you want to rule New York, you are going to need to play the cities growing immigrant populations against one another. Help the immigrant groups who owe you political favors, call in those favors to slander your rivals and win election.”

Someone’s fictional fantasy? Well, let’s try old-fashioned history:

In the period before the Civil War, the New York saloons were generally the center of local politics, and election contests could literally turn into street brawls. Neighborhood toughs would be employed to make sure the vote “went Tammany's way.” There are myriad stories about Tammany workers stuffing ballot boxes and engaging in flagrant election fraud.

Corruption in the administration of the city also became a running theme of the Tammany organization in the 1850s. In the early 1860s, the Grand Sachem, Isaac Fowler, who held a modest government job as a postmaster, was living lavishly in a Manhattan hotel.

Fowler, it was estimated, was spending at least ten times his income. He was charged with embezzlement, and when a marshal came to arrest him he was allowed to escape. He fled to Mexico but returned to the US when charges were dropped.

Despite this constant atmosphere of scandal, the Tammany organization grew stronger during the Civil War. In 1867 a lavish new headquarters was opened on 14th Street in New York City, which became the literal Tammany Hall. This new “wigwam” contained a large auditorium which was the site of the Democratic National Convention in 1868.

Concerning the Tammany Hall boss George Washington Plunkitt and his reference to “honest graft,” the meaning is found in Mr. Plunkitt’s own words:

EVERYBODY is talkin’ these days about Tammany men growin’ rich on graft, but nobody thinks of drawin’ the distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft. There’s all the difference in the world between the two. Yes, many of our men have grown rich in politics. I have myself. I’ve made a big fortune out of the game, and I’m gettin’ richer every day, but I’ve not gone in for dishonest graft – blackmailin’ gamblers, saloonkeepers, disorderly people, etc. – and neither has any of the men who have made big fortunes in politics.

There’s an honest graft, and I’m an example of how it works. I might sum up the whole thing by sayin’: “I seen my opportunities and I took ‘em.”

Just let me explain by examples. My party’s in power in the city, and it’s goin’ to undertake a lot of public improvements. Well, I’m tipped off, say, that they’re going to lay out a new park at a certain place.

I see my opportunity and I take it. I go to that place and I buy up all the land I can in the neighborhood. Then the board of this or that makes its plan public, and there is a rush to get my land, which nobody cared particular for before.

Ain’t it perfectly honest to charge a good price and make a profit on my investment and foresight? Of course, it is. Well, that’s honest graft.

Or supposin’ it’s a new bridge they’re goin’ to build. I get tipped off and I buy as much property as I can that has to be taken for approaches. I sell at my own price later on and drop some more money in the bank.

Wouldn’t you? It’s just like lookin’ ahead in Wall Street or in the coffee or cotton market. It’s honest graft, and I’m lookin’ for it every day in the year. I will tell you frankly that I’ve got a good lot of it, too.

Mr. Plunkitt considers this “honest graft.” A lot of others recognize it as his abuse of power and insider trading. Isn’t this what the hypoccupiers today are supposed to be exposing and protesting? Maybe they should camp out at Tammany Hall.

Well, Mr. Madsen gives us a moment of honest, lucid insight into the long-standing DNA of both the Democrat party and liberal ideology. It comes as no surprise to TheOldSalt that Mr. Madsen and others would suggest that this is the route that the proposal and passage of another extortionist federal law should have taken. Extortion, strong-arm tactics, and complete abuse of power are the only mediums through which liberal ideologies see the light of day. Honest discussion and evaluation of liberal ideas exposes their insanity every time.

Unfortunately for Americans, we get to live through the Democrats’ “good old days” yet once again.