The cause of political corruption that no one wants to think about

The cause of political corruption that no one wants to think about

Political corruption flourishes especially in countries where the party in power is able to suppress dissent and so dominates the spoils of their dominance that the favors they dole out keep their minions faithful. This is especially true in impoverished nations where those favors make the difference between having an income or living in abject poverty. How though can it happen in an affluent democratic society that vacillates between its two dominant parties, and even elects independent and third-party candidates to high office?

The answer lies in millennia-old philosophical observations. In modern times, historians, like J. G. A. Pocock, attribute the philosophical center of republican thinking to the early Florentine Renaissance thinkers of the13th century. It is a concept referring to the lack of civic virtu within Civic Humanist Political Philosophy. This virtu is attained only when citizens fully participate in the political process, but moreover do so for the greater good of the nation.

But the chief penalty is to be governed by someone worse if a man will not himself hold office and rule.
Plato ~ The Republic

In this context, the fact that Americans are corrupt is an ugly truth, but a truth to which even those who believe that they are not corrupt must man-up, metaphorically. Just to be clear on the point, this corruption is not the generic concept of taking graft in exchange for some political action, though voting to get a tax break qualifies.

We certainly see the full extent of corruption, the total lack of virtu, in the wealthy who invest fortunes to avoid paying their fair share of the tax burden. We see it also in corporations that not only pay no taxes on phenomenal profits, but also receive phenomenal tax returns. We see it as well in so-called public servants, our politicians, who virtually grow wealthy on the public dole, while betraying the best interests of the nation in service to those whose wealth supports their political ambitions, which is the more prosaic concept of corruption.

What is less clear is is the fundamental corruption within the electorate. It begins with voter apathy at a level unparalleled in western industrialized nations. Let's take a look at three countries from 1948 to the present in comparison, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, beginning with Sweden. Since reaching a peak of 91.76 voter turnout in 1976, voter turnout began falling into decline to a low of 80.11%, in 2002, the lowest since its all-time low in 1958. In 2010 it rose again to 84.63%. The numbers in Denmark very nearly mirror those in Sweden, but those in Germany were a bit more than nominally lower. The peak turnout in Germany hit its high mark with 91.11% in 1976, and reached its nadir with only 70.78% in 2009.

From 1840 through 1908, the turnout for presidential elections in the United States reached it's peak, but ranged only between 65.2 to 81.8%, a good 10% below Germany's current voter turnout record. Over the same period, 1948 to the present, voter turnout in the US ranged between a low of 49%, in 1996, to a high of 63.11%, in 1964, when Americans turned out to keep Goldwater out of office. That's an average of a nearly 31% lower voter turnout than in Germany.

In the United States, the voter turnout ranges between 36.4% and 61.9%, a difference of nearly 40% lower voter turnout in Germany, and over 44% lower than Sweden. This is however not the most shocking statistic.

During what are called off-year elections, in which only members of Congress are elected, turnout among eligible voters typically drops to the lower 30% range, and as low as 49% in 1996. The critical implications and depth of corruption in this fact cannot be overemphasized. Essentially, just over one-third of the electorate decides who makes the laws! More dismal still, it is not uncommon for voter turnout in state and local elections to be in the 9% to 11% range.

Congressional elections seat those who write our laws, and whether the President is a helpless vestigial tail at the mercy of a hostile Congress, or a power broker who can virtually dictate policy in today's ultra polarized political climate absolutely depends on voter turnout. We need look only as far back as 2010 to see how critical voter turnout is, and the effect it can have.

In 2010, general dissatisfaction energized the Republican base and independents to vote out Congressional Democrats and establishment Republicans whom they perceived as having done too little or done the wrong things to right the bottom-up economy. While, at 37.8%, the turnout was statistically in line with most off-year elections, the turnout reflected a remarkably skewed balance as disgruntled voters who felt that President Obama had let them down, and senior citizens who had been deceived into believing their Medicare benefits were threatened by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) padded the Republican rolls. In the main, these blocs turned out in numbers roughly equivalent to the numbers for a Presidential year election. Democratic voters, on the other hand, and especially the youth vote, just watched the election results on television, or heard about them the next day.

A significant and profoundly important difference in voter eligibility requirements exists between the European and Scandinavian examples as well. Voter registration in Sweden, Germany and Denmark is virtually automatic in national elections, requiring a citizen only to have assigned a personal number when having received a government benefit or registered as a citizen, and need not be renewed. Voting in local elections does however require proof of residence.

The depth of corruption, that lack of virtu thus far addressed, is only what is apparent on the surface. It goes much deeper. Petitioning Congress, whether through circulated petitions, letters sent by postal mail or email, or by telephone, even voters who participate in off-year elections do not participate to the fullest extent. The dissatisfaction expressed by so many who participated in the Tea Party makes this abundantly clear. Assuming their mandate was the removal of President Obama, the Republicans simply obstructed every effort to turn the economy around on the bet that the economy would show no sign of recovery, and continued to promote the failed policies which they knew could not pass—and everyone just groused.

Corruption is pandemic in America, and starts with an electorate that is too busy talking about the latest episode of "Jersey Shore" at the water cooler. The one certain thing about their lack of virtu is that their corruption is reflected in their politicians, and nothing about "business as usual" in the nation's capital will change until they man-up to their responsibility, until they expend the energy they devote to grousing on participation in their government.

Miles1 wrote:
Corruption is pandemic in America, and starts with an electorate that is too busy talking about the latest episode of "Jersey Shore" at the water cooler. The one certain thing about their lack of virtu is that their corruption is reflected in their politicians, and nothing about "business as usual" in the nation's capital will change until they man-up to their responsibility, until they expend the energy they devote to grousing on participation in their government.

Wow! This guy doesnt have a very high opinion of Americans does he?

He's right in a way, though I think it is less about the electorate being corrupt and more about being apathetic.

Sadly, most people in my country are not like the members of this group. We members here care about what is going on in the world or in our nations. We care about politics and I like to think we want to shine a light on corruption wherever we see it.

But its been my feeling that most of my friends and acquaintances that I know personally could care less about these issues. If it doesnt affect them personally, they dont give a rip. They may comment about what the president has done lately, but dont really care about what is going on in say....Syria at the moment. They could care less if Turkey had a jet shot down by the Syrians. Doesnt affect them. Doesnt affect their paycheck, their ability to watch the race or football this weekend.

But thats apathy...not corruption. And (imo) that apathy is exactly WHY corruption is allowed to fourish here in my country. I would imagine its similair anywhere corruption exists.

Already lost faith in those who think Glee, Twitter, and Facebook are important.

After what Dennis said,


Ever since I was a kid I always took an interest in what goes on around the world. I study world civilizations and history more than my own country. I don't know why no one else does. Some people I talk to don't know what the capital of England is. If you show me a blank globe I can name and locate just about every country in the world. Some people are just born with different motivations I think. The reason yanks are dumb isn't because of bad schools it is because of attitude. If a person wants to be smart and well informed about world events then they will be. The quality of schools is only a minor factor.

DougJS wrote:After what Dennis said,
Ever since I was a kid I always took an interest in what goes on around the world. I study world civilizations and history more than my own country. I don't know why no one else does. Some people I talk to don't know what the capital of England is. If you show me a blank globe I can name and locate just about every country in the world. Some people are just born with different motivations I think. The reason yanks are dumb isn't because of bad schools it is because of attitude. If a person wants to be smart and well informed about world events then they will be. The quality of schools is only a minor factor.

One of the reasons I guess that yanks are ill-informed about the outside world is because I guess you don't have to be if you don't want to. America is a big enough country that you don't have to worry too much about outside as it'll probably never really affect you. Is different over here, Ireland is a small country which depends largely on other countries so you have to know more about what is happening with your neighbours for your own good, especially these days where what happens with my paycheck is directly related to what local voters in Germany are telling Angela Merkel what she can/can't get away with doing with the Euro Zone crisis. Plus, is too expensive here and the weather is too shit for "staycations" so you have to travel to get a decent holiday :-)

Having said that, that's no excuse for not being interested enough your own country to go out and vote, or even interested enough to know a bit more about it than you can get on twitter or by watching Jersey Shore or whatever other Reality TV crap is on. And I would actually say that is a fault of the school system: once you get past the basics of reading, writing and math, schools are mostly about rote learning and memorizing enough facts to get you though whatever exams you have to take to get to the next level of education, where you start again with a new set of facts. Maybe some individual teachers may try to encourage a sense of curiousity and engagement and learning for the sheer sake of knowing something you didn't know before, but the system as a whole is just aimed at getting you out the door with hopefully enough basics to land you a job somewhere. And this isn't just american schools, this is pretty much schools all over the world. Education shouldn't stop at the classroom door, it should be lifelong, but school systems seem almost designed to beat that sense of curiousity out of you along the way.

(ok, rant over... :-P)

...but then again, you also have people like this too, who are just dumb:



:-P

Again, I dont think its about 'Yanks being dumb' or Americans being corrupt. I think its more about MOST Americans just dont care.