Over the years, we (Americans) like to call other countries and their leadership corrupt. We have to look no further than across our southern border.
This year, I keep seeing police officers hiding their faces as they arrest people; it looks like something from a movie where the officers are up to no good.
The images are what my Google AI comes up with; click on the image for the source.
How does the United States compare with a similar search? Interestingly, Google AI had nothing to say about the United States; maybe they were just afraid of backlash here, but after all, they immediately changed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of the United States.
Not a single day goes by without me seeing evidence of corruption, especially in Washington, D.C.
Well, maybe I need to look locally rather than nationally, and here, there is much less evidence of corruption, but if you keep listening to those crazy MAGA party members, one would think that all Democrats in Harris County seem to be corrupt.
The corruption exists in allowing elected officials to get money to run for office. If one thinks that the amount of money one gives does not affect how an elected official makes judgment calls, then let me tell you about this bridge in San Francisco that I have for sale. If I donate, they like that word, ten dollars, and someone else donates five thousand dollars, and we both ask to speak to the council person, who do you think he or she will see first? Would they even agree to talk to me? I know that I sent an email to Council Member Carter and did not get a response. I sent one to my State Representative, Simmons, and did not get a response. Not even their staff thought I merited a response; neither one of them will get my vote in the future.
In Denmark, which is considered the least corrupt nation in the world, they campaign differently and get about 90% participation in presidential elections.
But the biggest difference in campaign season between our two countries – aside from the length – is the money. With a ban on political TV ads in Denmark, cash plays a much smaller role in the blitz for votes here.
And this is where the American political establishment, if it really cares about the strength of its democracy, would do well to take a breather from the already frenetic 2012 race to learn a thing or two from the Danish elections.
By shortening the official campaign period and taking television ads out of the process, you decrease the money involved in campaigns and increase the genuine democratic debate.
It’s well known that negative ads drive down turnout. (Turnout in Denmark in 2007 was 87 percent, compared to 62 percent in the United States 2008 presidential election.) Smear campaigns solidify a negative impression of all politics in the minds of the voter, which does little to stir confidence in the government.
It does not give one much hope when we see our president accepting $400,000,000 for a four-hundred-million-dollar plane from Qatar, which is a nation that has been accused of funding terrorists.
The Democrats are not so innocent either; look no further than the former US Senator from New Jersey.
