The elephant in the room is that the concept of separation of powers has been shown to be a farce. Checks and balances can only work when there is independence between the branches. When a single ruling party is able to influence all three branches, there is concentration of power. And we know very well from history, power corrupts.
This is a problem not just in America but every democracy in the world. Some countries are just fortunate to be blessed with abundance that there's plenty left for everyone even after skimming off the top. But it's a ticking time bomb nonetheless ready to set off when the circumstances align.
I think people need to think about the fundamental structure of government. The three branch system as it functions today in many countries is clearly compromisable. The system needs to change, there must be a better mechanism to guarantee independence and integrity within the branches without the honor system.
Even when one party is in power, there should still be some independence across the branches. But the unitary executive theory combined with Trump's complete takeover of the Republican party fueled by MAGA has almost completely eroded any independence. And when someone like Thomas Massie or Marjorie Taylor Green buck the president, they get primaried, even when it's something Trump ran on and his base supported!
Also when a Supreme Court Justice occasionally decides against the president in favor of the Constitution, they get attacked by the Trump administration and the right-wing media. It's even worse for lower court judges, whose lives get threatened.
i've said it for a decade. The united states is the most corrupt country i've witnessed (first hand), the difference is they've legalized their corruption. I think it goes down to the core of the culture which ultimately decided that money was the primary value of all choices, (as opposed to say, ethics, justice, religion, collective health metrics etc)
It's always been utterly and disgustingly corrupt. The current clown is a symptom of generations of mismanagement and a thoroughly compromised government on both sides of the oligarchy. Their wealth is built on the suffering of hundreds of millions around the world, a tragedy perpetrated by war criminals, traitors, liars and thieves.
When will the people of the world stand up and demand justice? A global reform of governance is necessary, sooner or later. Seeing how the public defends the status quo, don't hold your breath - maybe better luck next century, if we still exist.
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." [1]
The author is a former DoJ prosecutor and blames the Supreme Court for legalizing corruption.
However, the author admits "Congress can undo much of what the Supreme Court has done" and neglects to mention that Supreme Court justices are nominated and confirmed by politicians.
The author does touch on a broader point: "This isn’t partisan politics; it’s political elites protecting political elites." So the real question to me is, how did this phenomenon, which I would assume had always existed, get this bad?
My own view is that modern technology has allowed the wealthy to consolidate power on a national and even international scale, in a way not possible in the past, forming one big elite social club. You can see this with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal; that dude was friends with everyone, business, academia, art, politics, left, right, even royalty!
The internet made coordination orders of magnitude easier than it could ever have been before.
Society and politics adapted to that, with like finding like, and reinforcing like.
So many effects, but one is local politics, which could be quite diverse across states, all converged into national politics.
Both a convergence of political views, and a convergence of cross-state, all-levels candidate and campaign coordination.
And the more coordinated a group, the greater incentives and opportunity for those at the center to further centralize and consolidate power.
The result can be a single person holding sway across all levels of politics for the nation, and a dilemma where most everyone in his party is either their because they are just as corrupt, or willing to hold their nose and concede some of their own power, as the price they pay to get anything done.
The Constitution has checks and balances within government to hold back centralization of power.
But no provisions to stop coordinated power blocks by unofficial organizations, even across all three branches, like parties can.
When coordination got cheap, fighting coordination becomes challenging and expensive. Centralization of power becomes a very powerful default.
There was a point not that long ago when all the rulers of Europe were cousins. Maybe it's easier now but power has always been very concentrated. Think the impact the internet has is that we all know about it now.
Your point about past centralization is dead right.
But the increased ease of centralization in modern democracies that the Internet made possible is incontrovertible.
Which isn’t any special insight on my part.
Centralization has increased and decreased in many forms throughout history. There are many forces working in either direction.
I would also suggest that seeing more corruption in the open, is more likely to indicate more corruption out of sight as well, rather than the opposite.
The topic is obviously corruption in the US, which has been a democracy for 250 years.
In general, bad corruption is no surprise in an authoritarian country, as opposed to a democracy, and of course an authoritarian country has concentrated power by design.
> There was a point not that long ago when all the rulers of Europe were cousins.
This somewhat misleading. The King of England, for instance, has not been the "ruler" of England for hundreds of years.
The elephant in the room is that the concept of separation of powers has been shown to be a farce. Checks and balances can only work when there is independence between the branches. When a single ruling party is able to influence all three branches, there is concentration of power. And we know very well from history, power corrupts.
This is a problem not just in America but every democracy in the world. Some countries are just fortunate to be blessed with abundance that there's plenty left for everyone even after skimming off the top. But it's a ticking time bomb nonetheless ready to set off when the circumstances align.
I think people need to think about the fundamental structure of government. The three branch system as it functions today in many countries is clearly compromisable. The system needs to change, there must be a better mechanism to guarantee independence and integrity within the branches without the honor system.
Even when one party is in power, there should still be some independence across the branches. But the unitary executive theory combined with Trump's complete takeover of the Republican party fueled by MAGA has almost completely eroded any independence. And when someone like Thomas Massie or Marjorie Taylor Green buck the president, they get primaried, even when it's something Trump ran on and his base supported!
Also when a Supreme Court Justice occasionally decides against the president in favor of the Constitution, they get attacked by the Trump administration and the right-wing media. It's even worse for lower court judges, whose lives get threatened.
i've said it for a decade. The united states is the most corrupt country i've witnessed (first hand), the difference is they've legalized their corruption. I think it goes down to the core of the culture which ultimately decided that money was the primary value of all choices, (as opposed to say, ethics, justice, religion, collective health metrics etc)
It's always been utterly and disgustingly corrupt. The current clown is a symptom of generations of mismanagement and a thoroughly compromised government on both sides of the oligarchy. Their wealth is built on the suffering of hundreds of millions around the world, a tragedy perpetrated by war criminals, traitors, liars and thieves.
When will the people of the world stand up and demand justice? A global reform of governance is necessary, sooner or later. Seeing how the public defends the status quo, don't hold your breath - maybe better luck next century, if we still exist.
Obligatory H.L. Mencken quote, from 1956:
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." [1]
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/27042-as-democracy-is-perfe...
The author is a former DoJ prosecutor and blames the Supreme Court for legalizing corruption.
However, the author admits "Congress can undo much of what the Supreme Court has done" and neglects to mention that Supreme Court justices are nominated and confirmed by politicians.
The author does touch on a broader point: "This isn’t partisan politics; it’s political elites protecting political elites." So the real question to me is, how did this phenomenon, which I would assume had always existed, get this bad?
My own view is that modern technology has allowed the wealthy to consolidate power on a national and even international scale, in a way not possible in the past, forming one big elite social club. You can see this with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal; that dude was friends with everyone, business, academia, art, politics, left, right, even royalty!
The internet made coordination orders of magnitude easier than it could ever have been before.
Society and politics adapted to that, with like finding like, and reinforcing like.
So many effects, but one is local politics, which could be quite diverse across states, all converged into national politics.
Both a convergence of political views, and a convergence of cross-state, all-levels candidate and campaign coordination.
And the more coordinated a group, the greater incentives and opportunity for those at the center to further centralize and consolidate power.
The result can be a single person holding sway across all levels of politics for the nation, and a dilemma where most everyone in his party is either their because they are just as corrupt, or willing to hold their nose and concede some of their own power, as the price they pay to get anything done.
The Constitution has checks and balances within government to hold back centralization of power.
But no provisions to stop coordinated power blocks by unofficial organizations, even across all three branches, like parties can.
When coordination got cheap, fighting coordination becomes challenging and expensive. Centralization of power becomes a very powerful default.
There was a point not that long ago when all the rulers of Europe were cousins. Maybe it's easier now but power has always been very concentrated. Think the impact the internet has is that we all know about it now.
Your point about past centralization is dead right.
But the increased ease of centralization in modern democracies that the Internet made possible is incontrovertible.
Which isn’t any special insight on my part.
Centralization has increased and decreased in many forms throughout history. There are many forces working in either direction.
I would also suggest that seeing more corruption in the open, is more likely to indicate more corruption out of sight as well, rather than the opposite.
The topic is obviously corruption in the US, which has been a democracy for 250 years.
In general, bad corruption is no surprise in an authoritarian country, as opposed to a democracy, and of course an authoritarian country has concentrated power by design.
> There was a point not that long ago when all the rulers of Europe were cousins.
This somewhat misleading. The King of England, for instance, has not been the "ruler" of England for hundreds of years.