Will corruption continue damaging country after hes gone?

[struggle4progress]

By Paul Waldman
September 15 at 1:54 PM

... It used to be that there were people in government who acted ethically, and people who professed to care about ethics and conflicts of interest but found ways to work around the rules. In the Trump administration, they’ve pretty much stopped pretending that ethics are something anyone should care about ...

It starts from the top. The president himself hired his family members; continues to profit from a hotel near the White House where foreign dignitaries and political cronies know they can line his pockets by booking overpriced rooms and meeting spaces; charges the Secret Service to rent golf carts to get around on his frequent trips to his golf resorts; passes out ethics waivers like candy so that lobbyists can move into the administration and “oversee” the industries that paid them in the past and will no doubt do so in the future; and of course refuses to release the tax returns that would enable the public to see how he’s profiting from the presidency ...

... the result is that none of us expect anything different. Of course Trump will use the presidency to enrich himself and his family members. Of course he’ll hire people whose government “service” is for the sole purpose of enriching the industries from which they hail. Of course those who work for him will see public resources as theirs to do with what they will. That’s just how things work now.

Which raises a disturbing question: When Trump leaves the White House, will he have so degraded every ethical rule and norm that future administrations will feel no need to exceed his debauched standards? As the OGE example shows, a lot of the rules that govern these questions are … flexible. Depending on who’s in those positions and what they think is acceptable, far different results can be produced. So when the next president hires his utterly unqualified son-in-law for a position of unparalleled influence, will anyone bother to object? When we find out that the next president is using the presidency to pad his bank account, will it be seen as a scandal, or nothing out of the ordinary? ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/09/15/will-trumps-corruption-continue-damaging-the-country-after-hes-gone/?utm_term=.50ae7650b729

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Wholesale damage of our institutions and COURTS is going on full blast everyday.

Doubtful we will survive this as an in tact democracy.

In fact I dont see that happening at all, it will just be survival.

[Voltaire2]

2. Corrupted before, likely corrupted after.

The Trump family will walk away with towers of loot, the system will continue to serve the rich and powerful as it has for the last 40 years.

[Leith]

3. I Think That Future Candidates Would Do Well to Call Out the Corruption

Imagine stating in a debate or speech that he or she promises to not hire any family members for any post, official or unofficial, even a qualified one. Wouldn't it be nice to hear them say that they will place any wealth they have into a blind trust - like every other president before Dolt45? While we're at it, they could have their tax returns already made public and challenge shitgibbon to do the same.

There is a mountain of issues that orange boy could be nailed on. A future candidate won't need to ignore him looking like he's humping a chair - s/he can make a crack about how tRump will do anything to keep the camera on him.

We just need somebody armed with some great quips and not afraid to use them.

[BigmanPigman]

4. Of course. It has been getting much worse since Reagan,

45 just perfected the concept so from now on politicians will have a great instruction manual/ blueprint so they will be able to do it in a bigger way and be able to get away with it successfully.