Corruption, American Style

 An article that appeared on Salon dot com on or about October 23, 2020, reported that the Republican Party has spent almost one million dollars on something that smacks to me like a quid pro quo. The writing credit for the expose went to Roger Sollenberger. “Quid pro quo” means “something for something,” and the article was a mini-clinic in one of the payment methods for American corruption.

I teach law overseas. Not in Rwanda or something, but also not in a fully developed country. Somewhere in the upper range of the “developing” scale. It is common for one of my students to ask me if there is any corruption in American politics. Here is what I tell them:

“Well, we usually don't do the bag of money in America. It's almost never stacks of cash that are passed across a desk somewhere. But there is rather a lot of corruption in America. It's just much quieter, it's harder to see.

“If a corporation wants a politician to vote a certain way on an issue that is before congress, an agent may go and talk to the politician about it. We call the agent a “lobbyist,” those are people with licenses that permit them to approach politicians and try to convince them to think a certain way about something. Even if you videoed the conversation, you could not use it to prove that the politician had taken corruption money. Here's what happens.

“They talk about it, and the politician learns what the corporation wants, and he (or she!) learns that the corporation will show their appreciation. The politician votes the way he was told to vote, and if he does, there is a reward. Not a bag of money, like I say, but let's say that the politician has a son or daughter in university at the time. When the son or daughter graduates, years after the vote, the corporation finds them a wonderful, high paying job, a VERY high paying job, a job that they have no experience for, that they have no ability to perform, and for which they may not even have to show up at work every day. They pay the payroll taxes, and the son or daughter pays the income taxes, and everyone is happy.

“Or, sometimes, they agree on a future book deal. Perhaps the corporation owns a publishing company, and they come to an understanding. If you vote my way on this issue, in two years we will sign a book deal with you that includes an author's advance of two million dollars. We won't worry about it if the book doesn't sell.”

“That's how it works in America. It's all corruption, but it's all quite invisible, and all of the taxes are paid.”

The wonderful Salon article illustrates this pattern nicely. (Also available on The Raw Story dot com.)

Quote from the article, “this week the RNC reported $492,308 in expenditures on 'donor mementos' at book retailers...” That money was spent in September, 2020. Much of the money was spent buying copies of a new book “by” Sean Hannity, “Live Free or Die.”

“Combined with August receipts, it is possible that the RNC has spent more than $900,000 on Hannity's book over the last three months.”

Hannity, of course, hosts a nightly “opinion entertainment” show on the Fox Entertainment Network, formerly known as Fox News. He spends most of his air time every night pushing the Trump agenda, defending Trump, and ridiculing Trumps opponents. Coincidence? That, dear reader is up to you. It is dependent on your attitude towards what is going on now in America.

It is worth noting that the infamous elephant murderer, Don Junior's book, “Liberal Privilege,” is also in those RNC gift bags for donors above a certain level.