Jon Walker: In America, There Are Three Forms of Political Corruption, & Only One Is Really Illegal

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In America, There Are Three Forms of Political Corruption, and Only One Is Really Illegal

By: Jon Walker Wednesday February 2, 2011 4:59 pm

Personal money in direct exchange for favors – illegal

This is the simplest, most direct form of corruption. It involves an individual directly giving someone with political power money in exchange for favors. This is the giant suitcase full of bills to “make a problem go away.”

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Campaign spending and donations in exchange for favors – not really illegal

Instead of giving politicians suitcases of money in exchange for favors, the wealthy make large campaign donations to politicians that “share their values on the issue” and PAC/IE that threaten to spend millions against politicians that vote against their interests.

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Payment later in exchange for favors now – nothing is done to stop it

Under this form of corruption, the wealthy business doesn’t directly pay the political figure a set pile of money now in exchange for favors. Instead, through a wink and a nod, they let it be known that if they get the favors they want now, they will be happy to give them huge quantities of money later.

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Having easy and quasi-legal forms of corruption isn’t good for the public

If you ever wonder why extremely popular bipartisan legislation like drug re-importation still never manages to get enacted in our democracy, the answer lies heavily with the fact that there are three common forms of corruption, and two are effectively legal. As long as Washington is dominated by two forms of corruption that are incredibly pervasive, it is almost impossible to see legislation passed that would merely help the public if it meant hurting big corporations with plenty of money to spend on legal corruption.

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