Corruption takes many forms, but the most basic requirement is typically seen as needing a “quid pro quo.”
So when someone becomes the President’s largest political donor, and then creates his own new nebulously-defined quasi-government agency and begins exercising seemingly unrestricted independent authority seemingly under his own agenda… how exactly can anyone with a straight face not call this what it clearly and obviously is: corruption?
Moreover, it is such obvious corruption, such blatant “quid pro quo” that it almost flies in the face of the conventional understanding of corruption (where people typically try to hide the fact of their corruption). Indeed, it almost seems to be taking the opposite approach – by being so open, so unspeakably obvious that it shocks people into silence with its brazenness.
In many ways, this is the most dangerous type of corruption – a corruption so flagrant, flouting a sort of “what’re you gonna do about it?” attitude, which challenges any enforcement and threatens to undermine the very rule of law and replace it with… well, no rule at all, really. Just a loose collection of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” unspoken agreements, threats and promises, and demonstrations of loyalty – the sort of thing you’d expect to see in a criminal organization like the Mafia or Yakuza, not in a supposedly democratic government.
That a billionaire was able to spend so much money to effectively buy the presidency of the United States and then, despite not being in any way an elected official or even a Federal employee exercise such enormous control, is without question corruption of the most explicit and dangerous kind, and something that should have every Congressperson shouting and banging on the White House door. Not only does this undermine the rule of law (not to mention the will of the people), but it also threatens the authority of the Congress itself.
(Then again, I suppose we are a country known for shooting ourselves in the foot, so it shouldn’t be surprising that Congress is doing the same thing, but still…)
I can only imagine that some in Congress hope to use this to gain some advantage against their own political rivals… but I have to wonder if Congress is really comfortable with eroding the foundation of the rules and traditions that gave them their power in the first place. If corruption like this is allowed to continue, if it is allowed to become commonplace, if the power of Congressional oversight is allowed to be pushed aside, then those in Congress are going to find themselves standing on a shrinking, sandy island amid a rising tide, until they themselves are declared irrelevant and washed away, just like everything else.
Corruption is no joke, we’re playing with fire here and we’ve been warned of the danger… now it just remains to be seen if we will burn down our own house or put out the match that we’ve lit before it’s too late.
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