When
people think of corruption in high places, they tend to think of elites
feathering their own nests. Bill and Hillary Clinton monetized political power
into a personal fortune of hundreds of millions, and played the system better
than any couple since Napoleon and Josephine. Paul Manafort is alleged to have
sold his services to sketchy foreign powers (including a Putin puppet in Ukraine),
pocketed multiple millions, evaded American taxes and, according to evidence
presented in his trial, spent up to a million dollars on cashmere suits and
ostrich jackets (being rich doesn't mean having taste).
President Donald Trump is defending his former
campaign chairman: "Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and
many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me
for a very short time. Why didn't government tell me that he was under
investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion - a
Hoax!" The president might answer a few questions too. Why didn't he do
any background investigation of Manafort? His career representing tainted
foreign leaders such as Ferdinand Marcos and Jonas Savimbi was public
knowledge. Allegations that he received off-the-books payments from overseas
interests were also only a click away. In 2016, Manafort flatly denied the
allegations: "The simplest answer is the truth: I am a campaign
professional. ... I have never received a single 'off-the-books cash payment'
as falsely 'reported' by The New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the
governments of Ukraine or Russia." That didn't age well.
Another question for President Trump: Didn't it strike him as odd that a
man of Manafort's tastes and lifestyle would agree to work for Trump
(supposedly a billionaire) for free? Didn't he pause and reflect, "Hmm, I
wonder what he expects to get out of this, and from whom?"
Manafort is the poster child for Washington
corruption of the old-fashioned variety -- the influence selling and
pocket-lining kind. A remarkable number of Trump's people have displayed a
similar foible. Just in the first 18 months, the secretary of health and human
services (private jets at taxpayer's expense), the secretary for veterans
affairs (vacations for the family at government expense) and the Environmental
Protection Agency chief (a soundproof booth) have all been forced out for
misusing government funds for their own little luxuries. The secretary of
housing and urban development (a $31,000 dining room set), the interior
secretary (a land development deal adjacent to his property), the commerce
secretary (shorting stocks on nonpublic information) and the treasury secretary
(misuse of military aircraft) have all been accused of improper spending as
well. Far from drained, the swamp has been stocked by this administration.
But there is another kind of corruption that is more disturbing for the health
of our republic -- the retreat from governing in favor of posturing.
As Yuval Levin notes in a Commentary essay,
"Congress Is Weak Because Its Members Want It to Be Weak," the 21st
century's profusion of technologies permitting transparency have had some good
but many baleful effects. Because virtually everything is televised, politics
itself has become less and less about actual governing, with the trades and
compromises that requires, and more like performance art.
This tendency among legislators to grandstand and
to posture as the brave truth tellers condemning the "dysfunction" of
their own institution is actually the true dysfunction. When nearly every
member seeks to be a cable or local TV star rather than a lawmaker, it's no
wonder that very little actual legislating gets done. As Levin notes, even
controlling both chambers and with a Republican president poised to sign
anything they send up, the Republican Congress has achieved very little. They
passed a tax cut, but concerning the other priorities they campaigned on for
years -- reforming the health care system, adjusting the immigration laws,
confronting the entitlement crisis -- they have done nothing and seem to have
no plans. As for the chief job of Congress, developing a budget, well, for the
first time in 40 years, neither chamber has even considered a budget
resolution. And while Republican leaders demur, the president is again
threatening a government shutdown.
That we have a president who struts and howls and shows little interest in
the mechanics (to say nothing of the norms) of governing is well known. But the
Congress, designed by the founders to be the most powerful branch, is willingly
surrendering its intended role for the pleasures of a few hits on MSNBC or Fox
News. That is an outcome that the founders didn't anticipate and will likely
outlast our current tweeter in chief.
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