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If you believe all politicians are by definition corrupt, then the ones who are openly corrupt are at least "honest" about it. But that's overall a problem bec

If you believe all politicians are by definition corrupt, then the ones who are openly corrupt are at least "honest" about it. But that's overall a problem because it means the political system just gets more corrupt over time. I wonder how long until wannabe presidents are paying off the Praetorian Guard.

EasyMark 2y ago
I believe all politicians are corrupt, but there is a spectrum of corruption and what they will do before a since of morality stops them. Just like a nonviolent petty their vs a mob hitman. It's one thing to steer a contract somewhere over top of a different company, it's another to try and shut down social security, end democracy, or end 70 years of allyship and become friends with the most corrupt dictators for a cool $200 million.
majormajor 2y ago
That's the interesting thing here, isn't it? The goalposts have moved. It was "government needs to be smaller, because corruption is inevitable [usually with convenient pointing at Bill Clinton or other Democrats]" This had it's own problem - handing over power to corrupt businesses has had plenty of issues in the past! But now it's "it is important for us to seize and centralize more power in the areas we want to because of what the other guys did, but ALSO we are openly corrupt." Even something like mass layoffs is generally not framed as "the government shouldn't do all these things" (some exceptions of course for favorite scapegoats like CFPB) but just "these are being done too expensively and inefficiently." The admin uses things like "free speech" as a cudgel where it thinks its in its benefit, but then turns around and wants to interfere more in how many places operate (see the lawsuits over media coverage of the election, or restrictions on research or educational curricula). So the central small-government-justifying framework has been entirely jettisoned, along with any executive restraint. Will four years of that being in-your-face obvious alienate enough of the people who thought the "conservative" part was important?

EasyMark 2y ago

I believe all politicians are corrupt, but there is a spectrum of corruption and what they will do before a since of morality stops them. Just like a nonviolent petty their vs a mob hitman. It's one thing to steer a contract somewhere over top of a different company, it's another to try and shut down social security, end democracy, or end 70 years of allyship and become friends with the most corrupt dictators for a cool $200 million.

majormajor 2y ago

That's the interesting thing here, isn't it? The goalposts have moved. It was "government needs to be smaller, because corruption is inevitable [usually with convenient pointing at Bill Clinton or other Democrats]" This had it's own problem - handing over power to corrupt businesses has had plenty of issues in the past! But now it's "it is important for us to seize and centralize more power in the areas we want to because of what the other guys did, but ALSO we are openly corrupt." Even something like mass layoffs is generally not framed as "the government shouldn't do all these things" (some exceptions of course for favorite scapegoats like CFPB) but just "these are being done too expensively and inefficiently." The admin uses things like "free speech" as a cudgel where it thinks its in its benefit, but then turns around and wants to interfere more in how many places operate (see the lawsuits over media coverage of the election, or restrictions on research or educational curricula). So the central small-government-justifying framework has been entirely jettisoned, along with any executive restraint. Will four years of that being in-your-face obvious alienate enough of the people who thought the "conservative" part was important?