First, the sheer magnitude of cash in the elections has a nasty smell. Not
since "Watergate" in 1972 have major financial contributors to
presidential election campaigns been able to hide their identity as so many of
them are now able to do. The Supreme Court asserted in its 2010 Citizens United
ruling that as part of the Constitutional right to free speech, organizations
and individuals could use their money as they wish, privately and anonymously,
in support of whatever political views they might hold.
This is a huge blow to transparency and an invitation to corrupt practices.
This year's elections may involve more than $2 billion in campaign cash and it
is hard to believe that the biggest donors will not expect to enjoy powerful
influence if their candidates win office. The voter sees this and is appalled.
The 2008 U.S. elections
involved close to $1.8 billion of campaign cash -- how
much of it bought special access, special favors and special influence to those
with politicians to those who made particularly generous contributions, and
those who "bundled" the mega-contributions on behalf of candidates?
Second, many prominent politicians have been brought to justice in recent
years by courageous public prosecutors. As each new case hits the headlines, so
over time the combined impact is bound to damage the image of all engaged in
politics. Rod Blagojevich, former Governor of the State of Illinois, started a
14-year-jail term this year on being
found guilty on 17 charges of fraud and corruption -- the
harshest sentence that any politician in the U.S. has received in modern times
for graft. From Illinois to New Jersey and New York State, to Alabama,
California, Florida, Louisiana, Ohio and the U.S. capital of Washington D.C.,
prominent politicians and public officials have been indicted for corruption
and, in many instances, current investigations into corrupt politics are underway.
The public reads the stories in the local media, one upon another, as a sick
compendium is compiled.
Third, the 2008/2009 financial crisis, which devastated the economy, owed
much to the transformation by Wall Street of financial services firms into casinos.
But, none of the leaders of the biggest mortgage companies and banks have been
indicted for wrong-doing and many of them, who lost their jobs, took home
multimillion dollar compensation packages. For many Americans there is an
abiding sense that Wall Street financiers participated in massive corruption
and got away with it, thanks to their cozy ties to the government agencies that
are meant to be regulating our financial system in the public interest.
And, this takes me to the fourth reason why Americans are so concerned about
government corruption: They see Washington, D.C. as a cesspool of special
interest lobbyists who have made elected officials so beholden to them that
Congress is in permanent gridlock, the federal budget is a disaster, the economy
is faltering, and a host of enterprises, who engage armies of lobbyists, are
prospering.
