I fear the last 4 years have corrupted the House and Senate and politics in general.

[kentuck]

Politicians have seen that there are no consequences to lying and stealing. Why should they not get in the game?

I believe this may affect Democrats and Republicans alike. Our entire political system may have been corrupted?

They will all begin to look for the quick buck. They will challenge the laws, knowing that they can deny and lie and probably escape any punishment.

I was reading about 3 GOP members yesterday that had failed to report on some sort of stock transactions. It did not seem like a big deal to them evidently?

I fear these types of deals with our elected officials may become commonplace. Not that we haven't had corruption in the past, but there now seems to be a license to steal and to break the laws without hesitancy.

[Walleye]

1. Yes, and it's quickly spreading around the world

[Claustrum]

5. Corruption in government has always happened for many many years.

They are just not even hiding it at this point. Trump made doing everything bad in the open cool/ok.

I was watching the news the other day and they did a news segment on PPP fraud. And they interviewed some people for comments. I cringed hard when I heard one person claiming they don't trust the federal government because of situations like that. But republicans were the ones reasonable for the loopholes in the PPP program. Democrats did everything to fight for more transparency and check on the PPP loans and the republicans were the ones rejecting any of the oversight on the loans.

[Walleye]

25. Yes we have always thought if we just expose the corruption they will be stopped.

[NewHendoLib]

2. I think the Dubya years laid the foundation, planted the seeds

[Midnight Writer]

21. I always felt during the W years like we were being tested, to see how much they could get away with

[LakeArenal]

3. Much longer than four years.

Wisconsin was ruined back in 2009.

[CentralMass]

4. I think that it happen years before that. At least on the GOP side it is an oligarchy.

There are clearly very wealthy power broker buying politicians and calling all the shots. McConnel is their tool and Lindsey Graham is their butt sniffer.

[spanone]

6. TFG games everything through the courts. Sue and stall tactics.

He knew there were no real consequences to nixon, bu$h 1, reagan or bu$h 2

He took it all to another level and the con party followed him without question.

[Dustlawyer]

7. This is what happens when you "look forward, not back."

No Wall Streeters went to prison, or were even indicted, for the 2008 crash. Corporations pay fines but the decision makers not even investigated. No war crimes, no perjury, nothing. Powerful people in this country are above the law and they know it.

[leftstreet]

8. +1

[Dustlawyer]

16. The fact that the wealthy and powerful are above the law is a symptom of the control the

Big Donors and corporations have over our politics and media. The donations control government and their advertising dollars control the media. Nothing will appreciably change until we address these two root causes of most of our problems.

[evolves]

10. Probably more like 40 years.

The rot is deep.

[Jerry2144]

11. The true start date for the decline was

October 7, 1996 when truth died in TV News or 1988 when Noxious Gas Bag (may he continue to rot in hell) went national on the radio. This was when things started to go really bad.

[lagomorph777]

13. Bothsiderism is not valid. We see all Reptilians doing it; very little on our side.

[NoMoreRepugs]

15. THIS. TY.

[Bev54]

20. I agree with you, if you are going to make sweeping statements like that

back it up with proof. Are there isolated cases, for sure. The republicans on the other hand only have isolated cases of integrity.

[Brother Mythos]

14. I believe this actually goes all the way back to Ronnie Raygun. Now, some will say ...

it goes all the way back to Nixon. But, the Republicans of Nixon's era forced him to resign from office because of Watergate.

Ronnie Raygun, however, lied and lied and lied, and oversaw scandal after scandal, including Iran–Contra, but the Republicans of his era idolized him. And, Republicans today still do.

[Brother Mythos]

24. Yes, supply-side economics, Reaganomics, Trickle-down economics, whatever you want to call ...

that particular grift, is still giving Republicans, and their plutocrat funders, multiple orgasms to this very day.

Not a single Nobel Prize winning economist of the RayGun era would give that grift any credibility, but it made no difference.

[Dave says]

19. More like the last 40 years

The Reagan presidency was the beginning of the end of the widely shared American Dream. So much changed, then, that was/is negative for main street America. Now, if you were/are part of the 1%, it's been one continuous party since.

[flotsam2]

26. August 5th 1981-The Day the Music Died

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/05/reagan-fires-11-000-striking-air-traffic-controllers-aug-5-1981-241252

[Elessar Zappa]

23. There's no both sides to it.

It’s solely the Republican side of the aisle that has corrupted politics.

[Demsrule86]

27. Sorry, I view this post as a ' they all suck'

Post. And I do not agree… why would you bash our party like this?