If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you already know about the conflict between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump. While the Trump administration seems to be setting a new record for corruption and other “dishonesties” in the White House, this isn’t the first time in U.S. history politicians have yielded to temptation and the abuse of power. As Lord Acton pointed out, power corrupts, and that has certainly been true for U.S. Presidents.
As is true today, our Founding Fathers tended to be the rich and powerful. One of the ways they used their wealth and power was owning slaves. George Washington, for example, owned slaves. We don’t know much about how he treated them, but slaves built the White House, and U.S. presidents typically owned slaves until the U.S. Civil War. Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings is well-known and reasonably well documented.
It is hard to know, of course, how they treated those who served them. They didn’t keep detailed records. Slavery in the States is not the only example of what has often been called White Man’s Burden. The European nations carved up Africa and Indo-China to see what could be exploited, thus we had the Belgian Congo (and the French and Portuguese Congo: and French Indochina. And for a number of years, the British controlled India, calling it the British Raj.
Once free from British rule, the “colonies” became the states and soon thereafter started taking land from Native Americans, forcing the native peoples onto “reservations.” Our neighbor to the south, Mexico, also saw its share of exploitation and conquest. In the grand scheme of things, our current “stormy weather” is small potatoes.
Presidents have been guilty of corruption other than owning and exploiting slaves. When I started researching corruption in the White House, I had expect to find numerous examples. I was surprised to discover, however, that Republicans have alway been the prime examples. Both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan made the list. Donald Trump, is only the most recent, but he seems to be on track for setting a new record. It is important to remember that we, the citizens of the United States, have elected every corrupt politician. As Pogo famously said, We have met the enemy, and he is us.
A long time ago, a band called The Fugs, recorded a song about the nature of politics in the States, with the title “Wide, Wide River”:
As the previous overview of history points out, it is not just the States. The problems are universal, and greed seems to be the root cause. Almost everyone knows the Biblical saying, the love of money is the root of all evil. Business, however, has a different view. In the 1987 movie, the Michael Douglas character, Gordon Gekko, says that Greed is good. Although the movie illustrates why it’s not true, greed still seems to be the operating principle for the largest corporations, from agri-business, to the pharmaceutical companies, to weapons manufacturers, to the NRA, and to the major political parties. While he is “over the top” when it comes to greed, Martin Shkrekli is the current example of “over-the-top” greed.
While a little greed is good, too much is bad. There is no hard-and-fast rule for where to draw the line, however, so corporations keep pushing the limits. That’s also seems to be true for most politicians. They need money, of course, to be elected and re-elected, so they establish a quid pro quo deals with corporate entities: Give me a substantial donation, and I will write and/or support legislation that facilitates your maximizing your profits. Leases to access land for oil and gas exploration and other resources typically require government approval, and the “wheels (and palms) must be greased” to gain access to the required land. What’s a little contaminated water if oil and gas can be obtained by fracking? Earthquakes caused by fracking aren’t a big deal, either, unless you live in the area.
The most egregious actions in search of profits are wars. The number-one cause of war, in fact, is economic gain. Wealth and power, of course, go hand-in-hand. Those with the power increase their wealth, and vice-versa. One of the “assets” that accrue to those with wealth and power is access to members of the opposite sex. Men, of course, have always been more flagrant about their acquisitions than women, probably in deference to religious concepts of morality.
Donald Trump has led a very public life, so we know quite a bit about his relationships. We should remember that he is not the only one of the rich and powerful who have acquired “assets.” The real question, however, is where will we go from here. It’s hard to say, but the Rolling Stones had a good metaphor for it:
