This column flows from Elliot Spitzer’s crash landing. The important lesson is not inappropriate sex, but rather Spitzer’s abuse and exploitation of political power for career advancement. It took a sex scandal to awaken citizens to the harm and misery he illegally and unethically produced. Surprise lies only in his sexual stupidity.

Spitzer’s abuse of power is expected when officials lose ethical discipline but gain capacity to transfer wealth and preferential opportunities. Spitzerland becomes plunderland with sex only a sideshow. It attracted attention to minor flaws, not his abuse of power, arrogance, and dishonesty. The latter problems always plague the political profession. Historically, America’s constitutional heritage constrained the worst of excesses.

The problem can be illustrated using a mental experiment involving two airplanes having forced landings at Gallatin Field. The first carries a European national basketball team. List four characteristics of the players.

You’ll likely guess these: tall, strong, young, and exceptionally well coordinated. While there are 5’ 6” guards, these attributes describe the vast majority of players who have bested their competitors to make their national team. These characteristics lead to basketball success.

The second plane, in route from Washington, DC to Hawaii, is filled with national politicians. What attributes do they share?

Predicting politicians is harder than basketball players for victors vary. Some have famous names, others money, brains, or luck. Their attributes differ and there is more room for outliers. However, most will be: smart, driven, arrogant, facile, duplicitous, and wealthy. Exceptions are few.

Not all, of course, begin that way. Consider John Tester, by all accounts an honorable man when he left for DC. However, the pressures of politics select for the above attributes. (Monitor his votes on earmarks.)

A few politicians with a strong philosophical and ethical gyroscope somehow, sometimes survive. The late Senator Pat Moynihan and today’s Representative Jeff Flake are examples. There are a few others, but not enough to approach a majority. Why this sorry state?

In brief, the selective pressures to lie, dissemble, hide, misrepresent, and posture are perverse and pervasive. Those exceptionally skilled at skullduggery have a huge advantage over the forthright, honest, and sincere.

Think earmarks. James D. Savage, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, says, “[T]hose taxpayer dollars are allocated strictly on the basis of the power and access of the legislators involved.” Philosophic consistency is a huge liability when winning requires the favor of those seeking special benefits or dispensations from government.

As economist Arnold Kling observed: “The term ‘Spitzer’ belongs in the dictionary, and its definition should be ‘any politician.’ ... [T]hey all have an inflated view of their superiority over the rest of us.” (I’d say national politician for there are many honorable people at local levels.)

In Spitzerland, those who rise to the top aggressively employ political power to favor themselves and give advantage to their supporters. Again quoting Kling: “To the extent that we root for strong politicians, join political cults, invest our hopes and desires in charismatic leaders, all of us are Spitzer wives.”

Here’s the sorry truth: we’ve become addicted to a government that plunders some for the benefit of organized others. Politicians win by concentrating benefits and diffusing costs. That’s their game.

America’s founders understood and anticipated this relentless force and guarded against it. They designed a set of rules for making rules, our Constitution. It protected (among white men) the weak from the strong, fostered productive rather than predatory actions, and provided a means for peacefully settling the inevitable conflicts that accompany social and business relations. All are essential to civil society. (Today their omissions seem heinous, but the Constitution remains a marvel.)

We’re in a society addicted to political plunder. Can we reestablish constitutional constraints on this pathology? The odds are low and our financial future looks evermore grim. Unfortunately, even minor sexual deviations capture more attention and extract more punishment than major transgressions of abusive power leading to ruin.

Whenever the legislature of a heterogeneous society goes beyond the basic activities granted by the Founders and distributes wealth and preferential opportunities, the plunder game begins with profoundly negative social and economic consequences. We are, however, blessed with a passport to escape from Spitzerland: our Constitution.