"Drain the swamp" means remove the environment that breeds snakes. One example, New York City under Giuliani.
I am going to drag out one of my pet stories. I used to do a lot of criminal law, I was on the list for court-appointed attorneys when I was getting started. At one point I asked a judge how he decided to rule in cases.
He told me that he had learned the following from another judge, and it worked for him.
There are three kinds of people in the world, norps, snakes, and slugs.
Norps are normal, ordinary, respectable people who screwed up on Saturday night. Anything you do to them will work, be it a fine, public service, whatever ---- you'll probably never see them back in the courtroom.
Snakes are victimizers. Nothing you do to them will work, so the best thing to do is max them out and keep them off the streets.
But the slugs -- ah, that is where the challenge is. Slugs are weak. If they are with good people, they are good. If they are with bad people, they are bad. So the challenge is getting them to stay away from bad people.
So, one way to keep the slugs on the straight and narrow is to keep them away from snakes. Hence, drain the swamp.
Snakes congregate wherever there is corruption.
Disclaimer -- I have nothing against real snakes, the long slithery animals. This story is about victimizers.
Bin Laden and his ilk are victimizers. They want to take over and rule countries but they can't accomplish that through normal means so they use money and violence. Take away the money. Shut down the places they use to hang out in. |
