Empire of Corruption

The Way It Goes from Here Depends on US

Back when combating rather than fomenting corruption used to guide US government policy at home and overseas, we understood that sound public institutions undergirded our success as a nation. We were supposed to be “a country of laws, not men”.

That was then.

Corruption, the use of public office for private gain, was seen as corroding good government and undermining public institutions by channeling the power and resources of the state in a “particular,” or private, direction.

That was then.

In Federalist 51, James Madison famously wrote that, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary…”

But such controls are necessary because men are men and not angels, and can be corrupted. Many if not most will be if you let them.

What happens when we’re dealing not just with men, but bad men?

From that (pretty accurate) idea of human nature we got the separation of powers, checks and balances, the three branches. The idea that power should always be checked and balanced by a separate and coequal power—to prevent the abuse of that power and to block corruption from spreading.

To halt the actions of men, including bad men, and to punish them if necessary, before it was too late.

It was understood that corruption, left unchecked, caused public institutions to skew—potentially permanently—in a particular direction. Once rented, sold, or traded to particular interests—whether individual people, private entities, or specific groups—they pursue those instead.

Those of us who have lived and worked in places where public institutions do not function, or function poorly, or function mostly (if not exclusively) on behalf of private interests, know what this looks like in real life.

Let’s put it this way: you better hope you’re in the “in” group.

I know. I know. The United States has never been perfect. To some observers, the system itself is corrupt, and what we see now is an angry flaring of the symptom rather than a dangerous new strain of the disease. Nothing new here.

I’m not so sure. It feels to me like the difference in degree—and brazenness—amounts to a difference in kind.

And there is such a thing as moving decisively in the wrong direction—the self-correcting mechanisms de-fanged, the protections ripped away, the separate powers imploded into one.

Buckle your seat belts.

*****

It feels almost foolish now, but I recall the annual “ethics” course I (like other government employees) had to take during my years in government service. And when I reached a certain level, the annual review of my (relatively paltry) finances by government ethics lawyers. Even the appearance of a conflict of interest could be problematic, requiring quick action to remove it.

As for gifts from private individuals or foreign governments, these could not exceed a certain laughably low dollar limit, depending. Everybody understood why.

Not anymore.

Now our president can do and accept whatever he wants, without limits. Pursue a fantastic cryptocurrency scheme that enriches his family; accept a fabulous $300+ million jumbo jet from a foreign country; all but openly pursue private business deals in the first group of countries he visits officially as president; sell time-share face time with himself and his family and cronies. The list goes on.

What is this? What have we come to?

This is not just brazen corruption, this is corruption raised to neutron bomb powers. This is a president pursuing private interests as a core presidential function. This is fusion of the highest public office with particular matters, to such a degree that the two have become seamless. This is the obliteration of private and public. This is not so-called unitary executive theory, this is virtual omnipotence.

This is “l’etat c’est moi” stuff, with the accompanying impunity.

Why aren’t all Americans absolutely up in arms, screaming for impeachment yesterday, including and especially congressional Republicans?

Don’t tell me. Let me guess.

*****

I will end where I began.

To paraphrase Nobel Prize winning economists Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, nations fail when their economic and political institutions fall into the hands of elites with unchecked power who pursue their own interests at the expense of the nation. Nations fail when public institutions are pushed and pulled, twisted, and taken over outright by particular interests. They fail when they are “captured” by private power—which is extractive, exclusive, and self-dealing—and leave the rest of us behind.

The United States has never before been in such danger of becoming a failing nation, its fate in the hands of a bad man, a known grifter and twice-impeached criminal who tried openly to steal an election. It should be no surprise that he is now shamelessly pursuing his own interests at the nation’s expense, and even bragging about it. He’s only doing what he says everyone would do in his place (not so), and (for all he cares) what they should now do in theirs.

Now they just might. Think of the cascading vicious cycle.

Whatever the flaws in our constitutional system, it has remained resilient—until now. The checks and balances enabled it to defend itself against the abuses and corruption of men, including bad men. It has allowed it to stand its ground and push back.

What happens in the coming months and years, whether we turn back the tide or submit to a grim fate, will depend on Congress, the judiciary, and the American people.

But the clock is ticking.