Corruption

Throughout the year, I will be following the hot topic of corruption.

To Corrupt is defined as, "to abuse or destroy," directly translated from the Latin corruptus, it means "utterly broken."

By all who believe firmly in Democracy, Corruption is seen as the ultimate sin. Our government is so very fragile, and corruption makes cracks in the foundation that, while forgotten over time, never seem to heal properly.

The corruption will continue indefinitely, either because our politicians entirely lack a moral compass, or because the public is too unaware of it to see it as anything other than an isolated incident.

Yet corruption is not an isolated incident. How can an incident be isolated if it spans over many spheres of crime, whether the crime be against ethics or democratic law? With so many types of corruption, branching from bribery to nepotism to voting fraud, it can all seem thoroughly disconnected. How are Rob Blagojevich (the Illinois govenor who tried to sell off Obama's senate Seat) and New Jersey Rabbis selling off human organs related? The link between these "isolated" incidents is a lack of reverence for the office held, a lack of respect for the citizens represented, and a overpowering desire for personal gain- at any expense.

This near epidemic does not force Americans vote, in fact, it makes citizens loose faith in the democratic system. When corruption comes to light, the media has a field day, the politicians and their families attempt to clean up, the opposition silently cheers, and the American public wonders where the man or women they elected has gone. What happened to them? How is the public so easily bamboozled into believing that the representative chosen actually represented them. We don't all sell senate seats and organs as a side gig. Then again, we don't all have the opportunity. Given the opportunity for selfish, personal gain on a national and international scale, would we take it? It is too easy to say yes, while jail time and public disgrace are a threat, it is also an unspoken policy to allow corrupt officials to resign and slink back into private life, defeated but unpunished. This needs to change. The American public needs to hold their officials to a higher standard, and punish them for not complying.

This year I will focus on how this is affects public life, why egocentric men and women hold government office, and why politics have come to be tainted in this way.

Far greater than the threat to public life and their own reputations, corruption is a gaping hole in Democracy that needs to be darned if Americans wish to preach of democracy's advantages in the middle east and beyond.