Institutionalized, legitimized corruption is a different thing entirely, and yes it's at a new level these days. See Citizens United. See the recent decision allowing corporations to run ads in elections. (they broke the spending record in a MIDTERM in 2010).
Institutionalized, legitimized corruption is a different thing entirely, and yes it's at a new level these days.
I far prefer to have corporations run ads in elections to having corporations purchase senate seats. And when I say purchase, I do mean purchase. Prior to the 17th amendment senators were generally appointed by state legislatures, and it was surprisingly common for corporations to pay the legislatures to make their man senator. This was the impetus for the 17th amendment.
If you want institutionalized corruption, read up on Tammany Hall.
If you want legitimized corruption, read up on the history of how the 14th amendment was so narrowly interpreted to prevent enforcement of its plain intent. We are not talking about minor injustices. For example in the Colfax massacre over 100 blacks were killed. Everyone knew who did it, only 3 were convicted of anything, and those convictions were overturned by the Supreme Court. This decision was widely applauded.
If you think that things are worse today, I'll need some serious convincing.
Dude, what do you think the easiest way to purchase a senate seat is? In most states it costs a couple million dollars to run a campaign for a job that pays 200k.
I understand that a lot of conservatives want to go back to the 1850s but that's not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about as recently as 25-50 years ago when the current state of affairs would have been a scandal. And heck, even during Tammany Hall, such bribery was at least technically illegal, and widespread breaking of the law meant our elected officials said "how do we stop this". Now it's not only legal, it's encouraged, and our leaders are trying to enable more of it.
Tell Carly Fiorina how easy it is to purchase a Senate seat.
About how things have changed in recent years, in Bill Clinton's book My Life one thing that he comments on is how much cleaner politics is today than it was when he was young and just getting involved, and yet how much dirtier the public thinks it is. Based on his insider account I believe that the reality is very different than your perception.
Yeah, Clinton was talking about the personal level, like "has a secret black baby" stories and things like that, particularly in the desegregated south where he was coming up.
Look at the income disparity in the country and look at the way the tax code, consumer protection laws, environmental protection laws and laws regarding corporate lobbying have gone in the last 20 years or so. It's all going the same direction. That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about when I say "institutionalized corruption", not small-scale backroom deals or dirty politics.
Yes, income disparity has gotten a lot worse since 1980. We're now back to about the levels of disparity that we saw a century ago during the gilded age. Just like then, I expect to see a long term backlash. (At the height of the backlash in the 1950s the top personal income tax rate ranged from 92% to 93%. On income over $1 million/year. That was a lot more then than it would be now.)
Currently the US government takes in about 15% of GDP in taxes. That's the lowest that it has been in a century. I would expect to see that change as well at some point in the future.
Institutionalized, legitimized corruption is a different thing entirely, and yes it's at a new level these days. See Citizens United. See the recent decision allowing corporations to run ads in elections. (they broke the spending record in a MIDTERM in 2010).