Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The Bulwark: Trump 2.0: Open for Corruption
The Bulwark - Trump 2.0: Open for Corruption
Firing watchdogs, rolling back reforms, and using government to reward friends and punish opponents.
Mona Charen
Feb 27, 2025
IS AMERICA OPEN FOR CORRUPTION NOW? Unabashedly? Nakedly? Are we tossing aside not just our hard-won victories over infectious diseases but also the more than hundred-year battle against fraud, bribery, and graft?
Honest, clean government doesn’t follow automatically from democracy. Though we’ve always had elections, for much of our early history local, state, and federal governments were awash in corruption. Party leaders rewarded their dedicated followers by doling out patronage jobs, often with little regard for qualification. The wealthy or well-connected were able to line their pockets by bribing public officials. The Crédit Mobilier scandal, which featured bribes to a dozen congressmen paid in the 1860s by railroad executives, was just one example of a widespread plague. George Washington Plunkitt, a Tammany Hall ward boss, explained in an amusing memoir that he had gotten re-elected by helping Irish immigrants and waxed rich by engaging in what he called “honest graft,” that is, profiting from insider information.
But just as we were able to defeat smallpox, measles, and diphtheria with sensible public health initiatives, Americans were able to beat back public corruption. Reformers, calling themselves Mugwumps and Progressives, animated by opposition to the spoils system, passed laws demanding transparency, requiring a nonpartisan civil service, and paying salaries to public servants so that they would no longer have to rely on a percentage of fees or taxes collected.
And what do you know, it worked! American public administration became much more efficient, the nation became a better place in which to conduct business, and—one almost blushes to extoll this in our era—there was a net increase in justice and fairness.
Public corruption is never completely vanquished of course. Look no further than former Senator Bob Menendez’s gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in his bedroom. (He claimed not to trust banks.) Clean government requires constant vigilance from the police, prosecutors, and the courts. It requires a consensus in society that this is crucial, and journalists on the lookout for tales of venality and malversation. There are also tons of civil society groups dedicated to this. They’re known affectionately as “goo-goos” for “good government guys.” They have soporific titles like the American Association for Budget and Program Analysis, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, the American Society for Public Administration, and so on. They do more than guard against corruption, they’re also committed to good policy and implementation. And all of that helps to make the United States a first world nation.
/snip
Firing watchdogs, rolling back reforms, and using government to reward friends and punish opponents.
Mona Charen
Feb 27, 2025
IS AMERICA OPEN FOR CORRUPTION NOW? Unabashedly? Nakedly? Are we tossing aside not just our hard-won victories over infectious diseases but also the more than hundred-year battle against fraud, bribery, and graft?
Honest, clean government doesn’t follow automatically from democracy. Though we’ve always had elections, for much of our early history local, state, and federal governments were awash in corruption. Party leaders rewarded their dedicated followers by doling out patronage jobs, often with little regard for qualification. The wealthy or well-connected were able to line their pockets by bribing public officials. The Crédit Mobilier scandal, which featured bribes to a dozen congressmen paid in the 1860s by railroad executives, was just one example of a widespread plague. George Washington Plunkitt, a Tammany Hall ward boss, explained in an amusing memoir that he had gotten re-elected by helping Irish immigrants and waxed rich by engaging in what he called “honest graft,” that is, profiting from insider information.
But just as we were able to defeat smallpox, measles, and diphtheria with sensible public health initiatives, Americans were able to beat back public corruption. Reformers, calling themselves Mugwumps and Progressives, animated by opposition to the spoils system, passed laws demanding transparency, requiring a nonpartisan civil service, and paying salaries to public servants so that they would no longer have to rely on a percentage of fees or taxes collected.
And what do you know, it worked! American public administration became much more efficient, the nation became a better place in which to conduct business, and—one almost blushes to extoll this in our era—there was a net increase in justice and fairness.
Public corruption is never completely vanquished of course. Look no further than former Senator Bob Menendez’s gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in his bedroom. (He claimed not to trust banks.) Clean government requires constant vigilance from the police, prosecutors, and the courts. It requires a consensus in society that this is crucial, and journalists on the lookout for tales of venality and malversation. There are also tons of civil society groups dedicated to this. They’re known affectionately as “goo-goos” for “good government guys.” They have soporific titles like the American Association for Budget and Program Analysis, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, the American Society for Public Administration, and so on. They do more than guard against corruption, they’re also committed to good policy and implementation. And all of that helps to make the United States a first world nation.
/snip
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
