Althouse: "Young voters overwhelmingly believe that almost all politicians are corrupt and that the country will end up worse off than when they were born..."

May 30, 2024

"Young voters overwhelmingly believe that almost all politicians are corrupt and that the country will end up worse off than when they were born..."

"... according to new polling from Democratic firm Blueprint obtained exclusively by Semafor.... A whopping 65% agreed either strongly or somewhat that 'nearly all politicians are corrupt, and make money from their political power' — only 7% disagreed. 'I think these statements blow me away, the scale of these numbers with young voters,' Evan Roth Smith, Blueprint’s lead pollster, told Semafor. 'Young voters do not look at our politics and see any good guys. They see a dying empire led by bad people.'... 54% — a number that included a solid mix of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — believed the country is going downhill...."

From "'A dying empire led by bad people': Poll finds young voters despairing over US politics" (Semafor).

83 comments:

MadisonMan said...: So young voters have eyes and can see.
The challenge is to amp up optimism in youth. The future really is golden and anything can happen. That's the American Way -- but you cannot rely on politicians to guide you there. You can only hope they don't get in the way.; 5/30/24, 9:03 AM
John henry said...: Sounds right to me

The only thing that will work is a massive, nationwide program of automatically voting against incumbents.

Simultaneously get rid of 20% of all govt employees at all levels. Probably more but 20% is a good starting goal.

John Henry; 5/30/24, 9:04 AM
n.n said...: A dysfunctional fitness function conjoined with a progressive process.; 5/30/24, 9:06 AM
Wilbur said...: The problem stems from the huge expansion of government, especially at the federal and state levels. More money in government leads to more rent seeking, more pigs at the trough and more and more systemic corruption. You'd have to be purposefully blind not to see this, and either a Leftist or gaining from it yourself to approve of it.

There's a reason senators and congressmen get wealthy in office.; 5/30/24, 9:07 AM
lonejustice said...: I'm a 71-year-old conservative Republican who is active in politics and a member of my county's Republican Party Central Committee. I too believe that 'nearly all politicians are corrupt, and make money from their political power'. I think this of Republican politicians as well as Democrat politicians. So I don't think it's a generational or partisan thing.; 5/30/24, 9:08 AM
Real American said...: Which is exactly why government power should be limited!; 5/30/24, 9:14 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Wow, those young people believing their lying eyes.; 5/30/24, 9:17 AM
Achilles said...: ""Young voters overwhelmingly believe that almost all politicians are corrupt and that the country will end up worse off than when they were born...""

They are entirely correct.

That is because the baby boomer generation was given a world by their parents where they grew up with modern comfort. So much so that women were given a chance to participate in much of what is decided really for the first time in history.

You cannot make decisions on how to run a society if you are focused on the comfort of your citizens. Making people comfortable is the cardinal sin of the baby boomer leadership.

The weakness of our leadership is only a reflection of the weakness of our electorate.; 5/30/24, 9:17 AM
mezzrow said...: Perceptive youth.

As stated above by others, this is not a matter of party or ideology.; 5/30/24, 9:18 AM
Wa St Blogger said...: Just the young voters? Guess that means I am young too!; 5/30/24, 9:18 AM
Lucien said...: We can’t even get Congress to bar insider trading, not to mention gerrymandering ( though that might be a state issue).
Was George McGovern the last decent person nominated by a major party?; 5/30/24, 9:20 AM
Achilles said...: lonejustice said...

I'm a 71-year-old conservative Republican who is active in politics and a member of my county's Republican Party Central Committee. I too believe that 'nearly all politicians are corrupt, and make money from their political power'. I think this of Republican politicians as well as Democrat politicians. So I don't think it's a generational or partisan thing.

A nevertrump says this.

With zero self awareness.

You have been the proximate cause of this problem. The republican party corporation specifically enabled this by not being an opposition party to the Democrats and allying with democrats against their voters.

The problem here is that our political parties are corporations with central committees who are insulated from their voters. These are the very mechanics they have employed to keep people from getting involved in politics.; 5/30/24, 9:25 AM
Narr said...: Young voters ain't wrong.

And imagine how the non-voting young feel.; 5/30/24, 9:25 AM
Enigma said...: The main question is whether young voters -- who generally have left-leaning generosity per their recent dependence on parents and adults -- will start to vote for law-and-order morality candidates. What's old is new, and what's old is straight-laced, strait-arrow, honest, pragmatic, and fair politicians.

D.C. could cut 50% of all federal employees (and contractors), and no one outside D.C. would even notice. Government business would likely get done faster because there'd be fewer lawyers, fewer review committees, and fewer political appointees with unworkable partisan agendas.; 5/30/24, 9:26 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: Unfortunately I cannot find it anymore but just last year some zoomer influencer posted on X. Her statement was in reference to then developments showing yet more DOJ favoritism for Hunter Biden and his myriad crimes.

She said, and I'm paraphrasing:

"There is no advantage to being a good person. It's obvious you get nothing by following the rules."

Is that or is that not the message being sent by every institution throughout the land? Is it or is it not true? How can you not blame her, or them, for corruption that is so obviously blatant and banally evil?

Perceptions like this don't get fixed, especially not when seen by people during their formative years. They will live by the new rules, and the new rules are acting ethically is for suckers. Buckle up.; 5/30/24, 9:27 AM
imTay said...: This is Trump's gift to America. He pulled away the curtain.; 5/30/24, 9:27 AM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: So lonejustice is not a deranged prog Party member, but actually an elderly GOP establishment cog. That explains much, as Achilles points out.; 5/30/24, 9:30 AM
robother said...: "This is Trump's gift to America. He pulled away the curtain." And the political class of both parties will hound him to his death for it.; 5/30/24, 9:31 AM
Wince said...: In that case, Trump needs to convince them he's different than the rest.

It's helpful that at the very same time, Trump's enemies oblige by targeting him with unfair prosecutions while saying it's because he's different than the rest.; 5/30/24, 9:31 AM
PJ said...: Today’s young voters may be recognizing the situation we Baby Boomers have collectively voted them into. No doubt they’ll understand we meant well and forgive us.; 5/30/24, 9:32 AM
Mason G said...: "Making people comfortable is the cardinal sin of the baby boomer leadership."

Isn't that what you said the boomers' parents did?

"That is because the baby boomer generation was given a world by their parents where they grew up with modern comfort.; 5/30/24, 9:34 AM
Old and slow said...: And people complain that the young are stupid and ill-informed...; 5/30/24, 9:35 AM
Mike Yancey said...: Nahhhh.
That’s what I thought too, all the way back into the late 70s when I was 20.
With brief flashes of Reagan and Trump, both of which were ridden down and constrained by the ‘ruling class’. Or the CIA.; 5/30/24, 9:35 AM
stlcdr said...: Old voters know politicians are corrupt. How do you limit the effect of the rot?

There are two options: preventing the rot from reaching you, or attacking the rot on the other side.; 5/30/24, 9:35 AM
David53 said...: What John Henry said except change this one thing. Get rid of 20% of all government employees above the GS 12 pay grade. Those below GS 12 don’t really have much power and it’s easier to harass them to quit.; 5/30/24, 9:36 AM
Mason G said...: "the situation we Baby Boomers have collectively voted them into"

If you're voting as a collective, you're doing it wrong.; 5/30/24, 9:37 AM
Sally327 said...: This isn't new, it's always been true everywhere and always. We're one of the least corrupt, I think, at least compared to some countries because we don't have to "tip" every government official or employee that we encounter.

Anyway, if the youth of America believe the current system is hopelessly corrupt, what do they intend to do about it? Perhaps that's what we should be worried about! It reminds me of the "Three Body Problem", which I am currently reading and understand has also been made into a Netflix series although I haven't watched that. If one decides that the system is corrupt and hopeless, it can lead to a search for alternatives or simply a willingess to accept any alternative as preferable, regardless of the cost or consequences.; 5/30/24, 9:38 AM
n.n said...: Politically corrupt (PC).

Politics corrupts. Democracy/dictatorship corrupt absolutely.; 5/30/24, 9:38 AM
Mark said...: That's especially bad because young people today put so much more reliance on government or others for them to succeed. Few seem to be of the type that want to do things themselves, wanting government to just get the hell out of the way.; 5/30/24, 9:39 AM
MayBee said...: Madison Man’s comment at the top is 100% right.

Pretty much all politicians are corrupt, but the future is full of wonderful possibilities Just not via politics/politicians.; 5/30/24, 9:40 AM
mindnumbrobot said...: Who can blame them? Our public educational system spoon feeds our youth that America is an evil, racist, immoral, country, who's wealth and power is built on imperialism, theft, and jingoism. And while there is certainly corruption on both sides of the aisle, it is the Left that promotes division and fear, divvying up the population by skin color, pitting them against one another. That is how you gain power, not by promoting America's greatness and optimism for the future.; 5/30/24, 9:42 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Well, at least Lonejustice admitted he is part of the problem and not part of the solution.; 5/30/24, 9:43 AM
Mason G said...: "What John Henry said except change this one thing."

Two things. In addition to the above, a significant pay cut is needed and benefits should be modified to be more in line with the private sector.; 5/30/24, 9:43 AM
Big Mike said...: I'm a 71-year-old conservative Republican who is active in politics …

Well, I’m a 77 year old Republican who has been active in politics since the late 1970s and I have known many, many Republican politicians that were not at all corrupt. Democrats, I have known no honest ones at all. I would summarize my experience as corrupt Republicans are relatively rare; Democrat politicians who are not corrupt are nonexistent.

I think this is due in large part to where I have lived: I grew up in Illinois not all that far from the Chicago suburbs, then Msryland, then the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. Only after retiring from work and moving to the Shenandoah Valley do I find myself in a region that is not deep blue (but a reddish shade of purple). Do not ever trust politicians from the dominant party in a one-party state! But the people running against them are usually honest — they know going in that there is little available to them in the way of long term graft! Consequently the type of people who are looking for ways to enrich themselves join the dominant party.

And I trust Democrats not at all.; 5/30/24, 9:43 AM
tim maguire said...: I disagree that the empire is dying, but it is objectively true that we are led by corrupt people who trade their power for riches.; 5/30/24, 9:47 AM
Birches said...: Yup.

Why is that hard to believe?; 5/30/24, 9:48 AM
Achilles said...: I am involved with a project called Intersect. We are setting up Member Based Organizations. We are building telecommunications infrastructure in a town that I grew in and we are setting up a Decentralized Autonomous Organization to manage it.

The central concept of this Governance system is staking and stakeholder representation. You can look up the Voltaire phase of the Cardano blockchain. if you want to learn more.

The most essential difference is that our governance is based on stakeholder participation. Your voting power is based on your stake in the organization. We are planning on expanding this governance model to cover many local functions.

Democracy is a stupid way to govern anything. People with no skin in the game have no business participating in governance.; 5/30/24, 9:51 AM
doctrev said...: Yancey Ward said...
Well, at least Lonejustice admitted he is part of the problem and not part of the solution.

5/30/24, 9:43 AM

He admits that every day. But when the lonejustice types are being dragged out of their "Central Committees" by Antifa, most normal Republicans aren't just going to stand by, we're going to give them some rope.

Well, sell some rope. Depends on their fiscal situation, really.; 5/30/24, 9:52 AM
Dude1394 said...: They are not wrong.

“ Blogger Lucien said...
We can’t even get Congress to bar insider trading”
Every financial transaction from members of congress and executive branch should be completely open for inspection.

And congress should have one, two, three etfs they can invest in, period.

All congress/senators make 170+k per year. No one living in DC amasses 20 million in net worth on that salary. They are all crooked. Amazing how we put citizens in JAIL for insider trading but we openly allow our pigs in congress to openly cheat.; 5/30/24, 9:53 AM
hombre said...: "... the country will end up worse off than when they were born."

Young voters are likely right about this. Based on what we are seeing, however, it is a tossup as to whether the demise of the country is being precipitated by politicians or young people or both.; 5/30/24, 9:59 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Fascinating but with tiny ray of hope, for this is mostly true:

1. "Nearly all politicians are corrupt, and make money from their political power"
2. "Young voters do not look at our politics and see any good guys"
3. "They see a dying empire led by bad people"

Number one is objectively true and ironically owes its widespread adoption to the "Democrats" [including the media's] habit of blaming "Republicans" for what the Uniparty members do. So many of the Uniparty grifters sporting both D and R after their names have been exposed by modern technology and transparency-tracking Web sites. The one noted exception is Donald Trump, who made his fortune in real estate and entertainment and even rejected the salary as president (donating it back to the Treasury).

So the "ray of hope" there is that after he returns to the White House more young people might see that it was the Uniparty enjoying Number One and an uncompromised individual can make a difference.

Numbers Two and Three are a function of both the education/indoctrination industry and the Big Media habit of emphasizing negative stories, with a big dollop of social media maximizing, which again emphasizes the negative to people so inclined. Look at the graphs of the steep increase in depression among youth right after mobile phones/social media were introduced. It's not because the world is any worse than when we were kids, it's that social pressure is applied in such sick and twisted ways.

Therefore the ray of hope there is that alternative education tends to blunt the progressive influence toward depression and cynicism and can restore some of that "be what you want to be" spirit we were imbued with, along with the knowledge that our enduring Constitutional Republic is way stronger than the "our Democracy" crowd has led them to believe and we can enhance and honor the checks and balances to keep it that way. Also, Charlie Kirk reports from campuses that this is the most conservative wave of youngsters entering college than we've had since the 1960s, and I've heard enough from them in his Q&As to believe it.

We need that balance in this great Experiment to both preserve what works and keep an open mind. The tension between forces of progress and the forces of tradition is what helps balance our government's power.; 5/30/24, 9:59 AM
Achilles said...: Lucien said...

We can’t even get Congress to bar insider trading, not to mention gerrymandering ( though that might be a state issue).

Was George McGovern the last decent person nominated by a major party?

Elected Positions of power are magnetic to corruptible people. Think about the type of person who wants to be a Congressman.

You don't DO anything. You tell other people what to do.

You can tell who the decent people are in the major parties.

The party apparatus hates them.; 5/30/24, 10:02 AM
hombre said...: "... the country will end up worse off than when they were born."

Young voters are likely right about this. Based on what we are seeing, however, it is a tossup as to whether the demise of the country is being precipitated by politicians or young people or both.; 5/30/24, 10:02 AM
rhhardin said...: Politicians choose feelings over structure because women vote feelings over structure, and the country goes unstable.; 5/30/24, 10:06 AM
Earnest Prole said...: This is news only to the willfully obtuse.

Most Americans are neither Republican nor Democrat and want nothing to do with the crappy, corrupt system.; 5/30/24, 10:08 AM
Anthony said...: Just assume everyone in government (unless demonstrated otherwise) is corrupt, incompetent, and dishonest and you're pretty much good to go. I've found it to be a very safe assumption the last couple of decades.; 5/30/24, 10:08 AM
Sebastian said...: "the country is going downhill"

Wait till they hear about the debt.

But most of the public, including young voters, want the decline: higher entitlements, green subsidies, tax-the-rich, weak defense, prog social fads, and decadent personal conduct.; 5/30/24, 10:10 AM
Deep State Reformer said...: Not a wrong perception on the young's part either. Even smart and honest politicians acting in good faith are slagged, bullied, cowed, and lawfared right into the ground these days. Politics has always been a shit show in this country but not like this. This is real and this is today. That's their world and they've got to live in it somehow.; 5/30/24, 10:11 AM
who-knew said...: ""Young voters overwhelmingly believe that almost all politicians are corrupt and that the country will end up worse off than when they were born...""
Thinking back on my history of commenting on this blog (and in real life), I have to say I agree with them, and I am decidedly not young. I still hold on to some hope but I often feel foolish for doing so.; 5/30/24, 10:19 AM
imTay said...: It's funny how you don't think we are a dying empire. Clearly we are. Our strategy for security has been to prevent the rise of any power who could ever threaten us in the future, regardless of their current behavior, and scare our public into believing that they have already harmed us in some way. Neither Russia nor China have ever done anything to the United States, beyond taking the other side in some proxy war that we were fighting somewhere in an attempt to expand our empire. Like Viet Nam, for example, or Korea.

It's not working anymore. There is no-one left to lie to. Xi keeps telling Biden, at every meeting now, that he is a liar. That he says one thing to Xi's face, and another thing as soon as he gets back home. We lied to Putin multiple times. We lied to Iran, we lie to everybody. If we sign a treaty, like taking the nukes aimed at the Soviet Union out of Turkey in return for the Soviets taking their missiles out of Cuba, we then simply abrogate the treaty a couple of years later, and put the missiles right back in Turkey. At some point the other powers realize that it is impossible to come to any kind of agreement of peaceful co-existance with us.

Unless you think it's a sign of poor education to actually look at the facts of world history, and not to simply believe the lies that our government tells us, year after year after year.

Obama and Pelosi removed the prohibition on propagandizing the American public that Congress had put in in 1948 after seeing the effects of propaganda in Europe in the thirties and forties, and you don't think that this is an issue? Look at the leaks that have come out about the "Cyber Threat Intelligence League" and don't read about it in Wikipedia, where the story has been thoroughly sanitized and censored away. It's a censorship regime and a propaganda regime, including false flag psy-ops.

We are a dying empire, and the only argument against it that you really have is that you don't want to believe it.; 5/30/24, 10:20 AM
Leland said...: I would count myself with the majority here. And I agree with Achilles response to lonejustice, who has shown support of the odd legal trials of Donald Trump. That's a capsulation of the problem. I'm fine with the notion that Donald Trump might be corrupt, but can we find people to prosecute him that are less corrupt? Better yet, can we find people trying Donald Trump don't are precisely more corrupt on the issue at question than the charge they are bringing against him?

Let's use Trump's first impeachment. Trump was seeking more information related to Biden's undue abuse of authority as related to Ukraine. What Biden is on record as saying to Ukraine as Vice President was far worse than anything Trump did. Yet Trump was impeached for it, and people pretend Biden did nothing wrong.

Same can be said for the classified document issue and Trump. Trump had authority to declassify documents that he had and claims he did. Whether you agree he had the authority or properly did so; neither Mike Pence nor then Vice President Biden had such authority when it was found they too had classified documents in their possession after leaving office. Yet there is no prosecution of them that is happening, and Biden's mishandling of documents seems far more egregious with documents left for years in an unoccupied office closet.

Georgia racketeering case is another piece of work. The DA and her hand selected, fuck buddy, lead prosecutor met with someone at the White House prior to the charges. We know the personal opinions of the Grand Jury foreperson, because she was interviewed by national news outlets and admitted key evidence was from a witness whose evidence provided to the January 6th committee was easily proven false. And the Judge for the case is hopelessly conflicted with having worked for the DA, gave donations to the DA's campaign, and when asked to make a determination of the DA's conflict of interest, got a Democrat primary opponent with support from Jessie Jackson and others in the Democrat Party. It seems someone is conspiring to commit a crime to affect an election.

While all this corruption and corruption investigation is going on... Nobody is investigating the debacle that is the Afghanistan withdrawal, in which Americans and other allies were left stranded in the country, innocent people were targeted and killed by a Presidential approved airstrike, and millions of dollars of US military hardware was abandoned to enemy forces. Few and ineffectual investigations are occurring into the censorship during the Covid pandemic and the now demonstrated lies of the NHS and CDC regarding origins of the disease, the effectivity of various treatments, and the dangerous side effects of the mandatory vaccination. Most recently, we have $300 million spent on a Pier for Palestinians that didn't make it a month before collapsing into the sea. These are all things that deserve explanations on the failures of government that decided to carry out these endeavors. If any corporation did such things, it would be criminal investigations.; 5/30/24, 10:37 AM
Paddy O said...: All politicians are corrupt, some are much, much more brazen about it (Nancy Pelosi, Clintons) because they know there will be no repercussions.

One reason I end up preferring Trump is that I think every politician should get the kind of obsessive media analysis and legal fine-tooth combing that he gets. He's held to the highest standard (and beyond into insane corrupt driven standards), and if this trial is the best they can find, he is probably among the least corrupt politicians out there.

We'd be in much, much better shape if Democrats got the same coverage as Republicans, but that's a seeming impossible request, because the media is absolutely corrupt too. Public corruption is an absolute cancer, one of the leading drivers of poverty and a complete betrayal of the values they state. But, unlike cancer, our current politicians embrace and wallow in their obscene corruption.; 5/30/24, 10:41 AM
Joe Smith said...: Young people vote democrat so it's their own damn fault.

Kind of like blacks voting democrat and being treated like second-class citizens.

That's what you get when you vote for racists...; 5/30/24, 10:47 AM
donald said...: “Republican Party Central Committee”. How fucking communist of you “conservative republicans”.; 5/30/24, 10:50 AM
Captain BillieBob said...: Carlin: It's a big club and you ain't in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyvxt1svxso; 5/30/24, 10:50 AM
Captain BillieBob said...: If you want to know who is running the country follow the money. All politicians are bought and paid for by special interests and their lobbyists. The only time politicians pay any attention to us is when they need our vote.; 5/30/24, 10:54 AM
Original Mike said...: ""Young voters overwhelmingly believe that almost all politicians are corrupt and that the country will end up worse off than when they were born..."

The solution to this problem is blindingly obvious; limited government. And the mechanism to achieve this has been handed to them on a silver platter; the Constitution. Yet the young support the exact opposite.

And they are correct; the country will end up worse than when they were born. Perhaps much worse. I find it difficult to generate much sympathy for them.; 5/30/24, 10:55 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Not sure why "dying empire" is such an obsession to some. It's a tautology, as is saying humans die. The eternal question is how are you going to live until you die? Are you going to prolong the Constitutional Republic and try to course-correct or are you throwing your hands up and saying "whatever!" Until they are dead cyclical cycles repeat. New heroes appear. New ideas flourish. We made the transition from empire to stable republic with much bloodshed and progress both. We only became the hegemon when the British Empire lost the leadership position to the US Navy et al. We are still extracting ourselves from the foreign entanglements that Washington himself warned about, but again, Trump is the only president in my lifetime to NOT start a new war and to simultaneously seek unique peace initiatives in the Far East and the Middle East.

That last "end of empire" statistic bears repeating, because this is a Year of Choosing: Trump is the only president in my lifetime to NOT start a new war and to simultaneously seek unique and successful peace initiatives in the Far East and the Middle East.

The good news is that more and more young people and minorities are in fact choosing the Peacemaker over the Warmonger. Momentum is the only cure for the Uniparty. Momentum is what allowed Lincoln to nationalize and expand the Republican Party. Maybe its time to Whig out of it.; 5/30/24, 10:59 AM
Paddy O said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/30/24, 11:01 AM
D.D. Driver said...: "Young people vote democrat so it's their own damn fault."

THIS! This is a nutshell is the problem. ALL politicians are corrupt. Rather than hold my own side accountable, I'll bury my head in the sand and ignore the corruption on my own side and pretend it only exists "over there." You will make excuses for corruption on your own side or pretend like it doesn't exist. Name three bad things that Trump has done. See if you can? Do you think he has EVER made any missteps? Giving out so much free COVID money? How about taking family homes in Wisconsin and handing it over to Taiwanese conmen. Google "Foxconn." When someone preaches "America First" and then steals the homes of Americans to give it to foreigners, that doesn't sound too America First-y. But Trumpies give Dear Leader a free pass.

So many examples of Trump being EXACTLY like every politician that you deride. You have deluded yourselves into think he is "different." He's the same. No better. No worse. If he belongs in jail, they all do and I wouldn't care much either way.

How are you any better than the clowns that vote for a Joe Biden's full adult diaper? The kids see it, why can't you?; 5/30/24, 11:01 AM
D.D. Driver said...: Democracy is a stupid way to govern anything. People with no skin in the game have no business participating in governance.

🏆Yup. The only reason democracy is even viable is with a strong Bill of Rights. I don't want to live in some shithole and let me neighbors vote on how I should live my life. I'd be better off under a benevolent monarchy. As we erode the protection afforded under the BOR...we will be left with tyranny of the grifters and busybodies. I'd rather have a king. Easier to overthrow a king.; 5/30/24, 11:10 AM
Paddy O said...: The country corruption index is really interesting

And it shows why Scandinavia is often highlighted when talking about forms of democratic socialism. That approach only can be successful in the absence of public corruption, but when applied anywhere that corruption is okayed, it's devastating to the country and especially the poor.

Anyone who claims to be on the side of the poor and isn't ruthless about fighting public corruption is a tool or liar (or both); 5/30/24, 11:10 AM
Oligonicella said...: "Young voters overwhelmingly believe that almost all politicians are corrupt and that the country will end up worse off than when they were born..."

More accurately:

Young voters overwhelmingly realize almost all politicians are corrupt and that the country will end up worse off than when they were born...

You can only hide this shit so long and with everyone having instant cross-communication, that time is now past.; 5/30/24, 11:11 AM
Achilles said...: Joe Smith said...

Young people vote democrat so it's their own damn fault.

Kind of like blacks voting democrat and being treated like second-class citizens.

That's what you get when you vote for racists...

Before Trump the Republican Party actively drove young people and minorities to the Democrat party.

This was done on purpose.; 5/30/24, 11:15 AM
D.D. Driver said...: "The one noted exception is Donald Trump, who made his fortune in real estate and entertainment and even rejected the salary as president"

LOL. Would you also say Hunter Biden got rich "selling art." You guys are unreal. Trump was a spoiled, whore-chasing rich kid who spend the Eighties on the over National Enquirer. He was Kim Kardashian before she was even born. He is Hunter Biden without the crackpipe. Spare me the hero worship.

He got rich bribing the politicians in New York and New Jersey to act as *his* henchmen:

https://www.vox.com/2016/2/7/10931176/donald-trump-eminent-domain

Oh boo hoo, now those same grifters have turned their henchmen on him. Fuck 'em. Seems like a taste of his own medicine. Why should I care?; 5/30/24, 11:22 AM
Joe Smith said...: 'Before Trump the Republican Party actively drove young people and minorities to the Democrat party.

This was done on purpose.'

You'll have to explain this one.

Most parties don't spend time saying "Don't vote for us!"; 5/30/24, 11:31 AM
Mason G said...: "So many examples of Trump being EXACTLY like every politician that you deride."

So many? List seven examples that are EXACTLY like every other politician.; 5/30/24, 11:32 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Driver that's not the great comeback you think it is.

Most of us understand the difference between a private business man working within the corrupt union system that politicians allowed/created and the crooked politicians who took the bribes to allow the corruption of the unions to flourish in exchange for more campaign cash that they could use to further more corruption.

That you try to blur the two, and overlook the fact he's not a warmonger, shows your lack of integrity. Young people are almost always anti-war, and your party has for years blamed everyone else for starting them. That one neat trick ain't working this time, which likely accounts for your level of pique, though your abject dishonesty has been seen here before.

[Vox? how lame. what else did you learn from the juicebox mafia?]; 5/30/24, 11:43 AM
JK Brown said...: Well, yeah, just because the old "Don't trust anyone over 30" crowd gained power and became the establishment doesn't mean they didn't become just as corrupt as the oldsters they lamented in the '60s and '70s.

In the early 1990s, a Gen Xer who I sailed with opined over beers, "The Boomers grew up to make everything they did illegal for their kids". I can relate as it was early Boomers who raised the drinking age in '79, made marijuana use a felony record, etc. Suddenly when they had kids, all bets for liberty and libertinism were off.; 5/30/24, 11:54 AM
Aggie said...: Somebody here has already pointed it out: Corruption disproportionately affects different classes, differently. It disproportionately enriches wealthy people, at the disproportionate expense of lower class, mostly poor people. It's not just that our system allows corruption; al societal systems have inherent corruption. What must be expunged is the administrative class that enables the corruption. This protective oversight is, in itself, a form of corrupt behavior. And the first Trump administration showed how deeply entrenched this class is, and how much protective institutional cover it has.

Maybe the yout's can show us something.; 5/30/24, 12:01 PM
Jupiter said...: "54% — a number that included a solid mix of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — believed the country is going downhill...."

What are the other 46% smoking? You can fucking see the streams of water rushing down the sides of the bowl. Listen close, you can hear the valve open up and the tank starting to refill.; 5/30/24, 1:16 PM
Jupiter said...: Neither Clinton ever worked a day in their lives, and they are billionaires. Biden would be a billionaire if Hunter could get within a mile of a dollar without blowing it.; 5/30/24, 1:18 PM
Jupiter said...: Obama is rich because he wrote books. Uh-huh.; 5/30/24, 1:19 PM
Hassayamper said...: Young voters do not look at our politics and see any good guys. They see a dying empire led by bad people

100% correct. The kids are all right. Well, they're not all right, they're in deep shit, but they know what's up.

Put not thy faith in princes.; 5/30/24, 1:30 PM
Hassayamper said...: ��Yup. The only reason democracy is even viable is with a strong Bill of Rights. I don't want to live in some shithole and let me neighbors vote on how I should live my life. I'd be better off under a benevolent monarchy. As we erode the protection afforded under the BOR...we will be left with tyranny of the grifters and busybodies. I'd rather have a king. Easier to overthrow a king.

I have a good deal of sympathy with this point of view. It's a restatement of C. S. Lewis's pithy comment about "omnipotent moral busybodies."

I'm frankly surprised to find that Driver possesses this much insight on human nature. Nothing I have read from him before now gave any clue.; 5/30/24, 1:36 PM
Hassayamper said...: @Paddy O: if this trial is the best they can find, he is probably among the least corrupt politicians out there.

How many people reading this blog could withstand this kind of onslaught? Even leaving aside the legal fees that Trump can afford and we can't.

If a few hundred inquisitors in two dozen government agencies conspired to ransack every nook and cranny of your personal and financial life, using wiretaps, no-knock raids on your house, illegally released tax returns, bill-of-attainder legislative hijinks like the statute of limitations revision, and immensely threatening pressure on everyone who ever worked for you or with you, do you think they could find something to bring you up on charges? Something legitimate, even?

This chickenshit, penny-ante, Kafkaesque persecution is proof enough that Trump is one of the most honest men in public life. Jimmy Carter couldn't withstand this kind of scrutiny, much less Barack Obama or Bill Clinton. And Joe Biden would be buried under the jail if the Eye of Sauron had ever turned towards him in this fashion.; 5/30/24, 1:56 PM
Hassayamper said...: Simultaneously get rid of 20% of all govt employees at all levels.

All BUT 20% is more like it.

After the impending civil war is concluded, the new Constitution should specify that government at all levels can employ no more than 1% of the population, and tax no man or business at greater than 20%. The "King's Fifth" of old is the absolute maximum we should allow the scum to steal from us.; 5/30/24, 2:01 PM
Dr Weevil said...: Big Mike:
You live in the Shenandoah Valley? Whereabouts? I live next door to the Woodrow Wilson (boo! hiss!) Presidential Library in Staunton.; 5/30/24, 2:27 PM
Mikey NTH said...: I agree with those who noted thar when you have the culture and the educational system slagging on the country, emphasizing every fault, then don't act surprised when the citizens begin to despise their own country.

Corrupt politicians have always been there, see the Tweed Ring and Tammany Hall for examples, if not any Raymond Chandler novel, but the drumbeat of despite for the nation itself is only about 50 yeats old.; 5/30/24, 2:52 PM
TreeJoe said...: They've grown up seeing politicians almost never face consequences for their corruption. Joe Biden has a decades long history of his family getting rich off of his name and access to him, including among countries anti-thetical to american values. He got a promotion. Hillary Clinton was publicly found by the director of the FBI to be breaking the law and publicly excused. Hell, you have to get to Bob Menendez in NJ to be literally getting gold bars and other bribes to see some sort of actual direct consequence.; 5/30/24, 4:05 PM
Rusty said...: They're not wrong.; 5/30/24, 6:03 PM
imTay said...: Let's say you are thirty years old, paying a significant part of your earnings into Social Security, and the government is going into debt by another trillion dollars every three months, what are you supposed to think?

Printing money to fix shortfalls of money has been tried, if it ever worked once, everybody would be doing it.; 5/30/24, 7:10 PM
Bunkypotatohead said...: Wait till they get old and cynical.; 5/30/24, 10:14 PM