The Mirage of Honest Government

For more than 70 years, America has been on the verge of honest government. In election after election, politicians have promised to finally take this nation to the moral high ground once and for all.

In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower captured the presidency based in part on his promise to end “the mess in Washington”—festering corruption from 20 years of Democratic presidents. Housewives were swayed to support the Republican ticket with red, white, and blue scrub pails with the slogan, “Let’s clean up with Eisenhower and Nixon.” Those pails did not prevent waves of scandals and top Eisenhower appointees resigning in disgrace. 

 In 1960, Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy captured the presidency after his party’s platform promised to “clean out corruption and conflicts of interest” and “establish and enforce a Code of Ethics to maintain the full dignity and integrity of the Federal service.” Kennedy’s lofty rhetoric mesmerized the media and assured that his scandals would be suppressed until long after his death.

In 1968, Republican candidate Richard Nixon promised to “make government more responsive” and “re-kindle trust.” Nixon also promised to lead “an administration of open doors, open eyes, and open minds.” His efforts to uplift the federal government were interrupted by the Watergate scandal.

In 1976, campaigning in the shadow of Watergate, Jimmy Carter promised voters “a government as good as the people.” His fulfillment of that pledge was exemplified by the regal treatment received by his beer-swilling, bribe-taking brother Billy.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan campaigned promising to banish waste, fraud, and abuse from the federal government. Reagan’s 1983 pledge to “drain the swamp” went nowhere, in part because of a vast scandal by his appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency. By the time his reign ended, busloads of his appointees had been indicted, convicted, or forced to resign after accusations of impropriety or high crimes.

In the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton promised to lead “the most ethical administration in history.” Instead, the Clinton administration uncorked one scandal after another, and Washington streets were soon crowded by independent counsels documenting crime waves by officialdom. Clinton’s pretensions to purity also took a wallop from his impeachment for lying and obstruction of justice.

In 1994, the Republicans captured control of Congress thanks to the corruption of Democratic incumbents. Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee announced in 1995 that he and his 72 Republican freshmen colleagues were “the purest, most worthy group of leaders elected to this body in my lifetime.” Three years later, House Speaker Newt Gingrich was forced to resign after being caught in a sex scandal. Gingrich’s successor as House Speaker, Dennis Hastert, was sent to prison for shenanigans tied to hush money payoffs to ex-students he sexually abused during his time as a high school wrestling coach. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay resigned after being indicted for money laundering and conspiracy; he was convicted in 2010 but an appeals court later overturned the verdict. Other Republican congressional committee chairmen were nailed for brazenly taking bribes.

In 2000, George W. Bush campaigned for the presidency by promising America “a fresh start after a season of cynicism.” Once ensconced in the Oval Office, Bush periodically prattled about ethics while lying the nation into war, launching a worldwide torture network, and illegally destroying Americans’ privacy. Like his father, Bush used presidential pardons to minimize the risk of his tools testifying against him. 

In 2008, Barack Obama capitalized on Americans’ revulsion against the Bush administration’s abuses by promising “hope and change.” But even before Obama took the oath of office, one of his top political mentors—Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich—was arrested for seeking to auction off Obama’s now-vacant Senate seat. Blagojevich was convicted for wire fraud, attempted extortion, and conspiracy to solicit bribes. The Obama administration launched a crazed gun-running operation that left hundreds of Mexicans dead, exploited the Internal Revenue Service to illegally hound Obama’s critics, and vastly increased illicit surveillance of American citizens.

In 2016, Donald Trump won the presidency after promising to “make our government honest again” (again???) and to “drain the swamp” to end DC corruption. Trump was too busy dealing with Special Counsel investigations and impeachment challenges to purify the nation’s capital.

In 2020, Joe Biden promised to end corruption by creating a Commission on Federal Ethics to “oversee and enforce federal anti-corruption and ethics laws.” Alas, that was merely a non-binding aspiration. Or maybe Biden was distracted by the endless revelations of his son and other kinfolk secretly pocketing millions of dollars from a long array of shady foreign sources. 

Despite scandals stretching generations, Americans are still encouraged to believe that the next election will result in honest government. Are citizens supposed to believe that elections automatically redeem democracy, like a buzzard that magically transforms into a unicorn every four years? Are we supposed to presume there is an automatic moral rebirth of representative government three days after vote-counting ends, like a resurrection after crucifixion? Are we supposed to believe that next time that presidents and members of Congress will finally honor their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution? But, as former US senator Bob Kerrey explained in 2013, “The problem is, the second your hand comes off the Bible, you become an asshole.”

The absurdity of expecting a presidential election to produce honest government is obvious from public revulsion during recent campaigns. Shortly before the 2016 election, a Gallup poll found that only 33% of voters believed Hillary Clinton was honest and trustworthy, and only 35% trusted Donald Trump. The Clinton-Trump tag team made “post-truth” the Oxford English Dictionary’s 2016 word of the year.

Since 1952, every rebirth of political decency proved a mirage. But good Americans are exhorted to believe that this election will be different.

Political purity is almost always an illusion—a stage trick courtesy of the media or shameless PR wizards. Most Americans pay more attention to political personalities than to the vast coercive machinery of government. But it is far easier to detect whether a law or policy permits arbitrary power and constitutional travesties than to perceive the full venality of rascals hustling for votes. 

Americans cannot expect to have good presidents if presidents are permitted to make themselves czars. Instead of asking, “Whom should we trust with all this power?’ Americans should ask, “How much power can any politician be personally trusted with?” The issue is not which political party should hold the reins, but whether the American people should be leashed by Washington.

Political saviors almost always cost more than they deliver. Trying to end misgovernment merely by changing the party in charge is like an alcoholic solving his problems by switching from whiskey to rum. Trusting politicians is a luxury that Americans can no longer afford.

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