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Municipal governments in the US tend to be incredibly corrupt, and consultants are generally the vectors of that. Not as bad as India or Pakistan, but definitel
by wayoutthere 6y ago
Municipal governments in the US tend to be incredibly corrupt, and consultants are generally the vectors of that. Not as bad as India or Pakistan, but definitely worse than every other “western” country. Most municipal governments in large cities are overwhelmingly left-leaning, which means the elections aren’t really competitive and politicians can be as corrupt as they want (do nothing jobs for relatives, pick and choose which developers are allocated which land, arbitrarily deny permits, etc) with no repercussions. The party exists to play kingmaker and drive turnout for the general elections.
The only thing that’s starting to change is that far-left parties are having some success at the local level. My city has multiple city council members who ran under a socialist party, which would have been completely unheard of 10 years ago.
- jimmyed 6y agoAre you suggesting that far left politicians are less corrupt?
- fallingfrog 6y agoCurrently, yes, that is the dynamic. They take special pride in not accepting money from corporations, lobbyists, big real estate, etc and the politician to lobbyist to consultant pipeline is the main center of corruption in the country today. For example, Jim Crowley is now a highly paid consultant for Squier Patton Boggs. In other times and places that may not have been the case but right now, the far left is noticeably less corrupt than the center or the right.
- jimmyed 6y agoThe problem with the new far left (and new politicians in general) is they are corrupt for power, whereas the swamp is corrupt for money.
- wayoutthere 6y agoI’m not even sure what this means? Power politics aren’t “corrupt”, they’re just politics. The power determines who gets the money / resources; in the case of the far-left that generally ends up being the working class. Things have been out of balance for so long there is a lot of sentiment in favor of wealth distribution right now. The power is a means to an end.
- Ericson2314 6y agoAnd how is the opposition not supposed to appear desirous of more power?
- joshgrib 6y agoIt's probably fair to say most "outside" candidates would be less corrupt than someone entrenched in the existing political structure. But also anecdotally, in the US the more moderate liberal part of the left doesn't care much about corruption, but the farther left socialist part does a lot because they see it as a roadblock to gaining power. Anyone currently in power wouldn't be as concerned about corruption because they actively benefit from it
- intergalplan 6y agoI'd expect most challenger parties to be less corrupt than an incumbent party that had held power for a long time, at least for a while, and maybe for a long while if their hold on power remains more tenuous than the incumbents' had been. I'd expect this to be especially true at the local level, where the money involved in running a challenger party operation and campaign is unlikely to be high enough to support much corruption before office is taken.
- wayoutthere 6y agoThan the Democratic Party? Absolutely; the far-left politicians tend to be idealists explicitly foregoing the deep power / money networks that the DNC provides. Which is why they don’t have much success at the state / federal level.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]