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Aranapequena's avatar

I love that quote "Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you."

There is a class of people that love status, money and authority. It is all-consuming to them, the end all, be all. These type of folks are drawn to politics, because you don't actually have to be competent (they are also drawn to leadership high leadership in other organizations). Once you understand that they really are all about power, you know to listen to everything they say with that bias. It's not about truth, or doing the right thing and certainly not about you. It's about perpetuating status/money/power. Hillary Clinton is a good example, she just can't let it go. The only solution in my mind is to devolve the power to lower levels (federalism). At least as you get more local, there is some chance that some of the politicos will be in it for the right reasons.

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SimulationCommander's avatar

The only solution in my mind is to devolve the power to lower levels (federalism).

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Exactly. I get $0/year from special interests because I have no ability to help them. I want my congressman to be the same.

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JP Freeman's avatar

Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano calls these elite pols “courtesans of power” which I think is a great descriptive phrase. The elites like Nancy Pelosi are the ultimate—she’s a real gutter politician from a corrupted family, the D’Alesandros of Baltimore. Both her father and brother were mayors of Balto, so try watching “The Wire” with her legacy in mind. It’s why she went all the way to California to escape local memories cuz Baltimore was pretty much destroyed by her family. She’s really good at this kind of demolition job. It’s genetic—look at CA Gov Gavin Newsom, her nephew! $12 pints of chocolate ice cream tone deafness, Newsom eating unmasked during lockdown at the French Laundry restaurant (my son the chef assured me that a meal there is easily >$500/plate).

Courtesans of power. Yup. They cultivate corruption like I cultivate roses.

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The King's avatar

They really don’t believe that the peons are human

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Surviving the Billionaire Wars's avatar

Or at least, the more factions fighting for your $$ & more power, the more they damage each other & the less they damage you.

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Aranapequena's avatar

Yea, there is no perfect solution, because that would require us all to be virtuous. I just can't see it getting any better with the current model. Way too much money floating around at the federal level. If we pushed the decision making down, maybe.. maybe, we'd see honest journalists who care about their communities and citizen politicians. Over time that system would probably get corrupt too though.

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Marc Littmann's avatar

The best way to put out a campfire is to spread out the hot coals from a central location and pour a few gallons of water on it. Why make it easy for special interests to have a one stop DC shop to sati$fy their power hungry dreams? Relocate departments outside of the Swamp or eliminate altogether. Until Christ returns and we then have a holy King who rules justly, we will continue to have to live alongside corruption.

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Brian Dixon's avatar

Yes, but the quote may need to be modified to be fair to sex workers.

https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/what-do-you-call-a-conspiracy-to/comment/4204672

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