On corruption

Corruption is a descriptor that commentators throw up endlessly in relation to the Trump shit show -- but what do they mean?

As I read around the news, I've realized I'm often confused by how the word is being used.

I know instinctively what corruption means: it's what is going on when a powerful person's favor can be bought, when the recipient of a gift is bribed, is "for sale." Certainly we see plenty of that from the regime, from immigration enforcer Tom Homan's taking a fifty thousand dollar bribe in a paper bag, to the Trump spawn hitting up oil sheiks for billions, to the Orange Toddler demanding tribute from corporations, ostensibly for his ballroom. 

But the word "corruption" carries a lot of connotations less instinctive to me that are even more applicable to the Trump regime. I see the Justice Department prosecution of James Comey for seashells called "corrupt", for example and wonder how that is meant.

So -- on to the dictionary. To my surprise, in an online dictionary, the equation of "corruption" with bribery doesn't emerge until fifth definition. The first few meanings cited are "corrupt" instances of impurity whether in metals or other objects, or of sexual morals, or of integrity and honesty. 

I guess I need to revamp my internal definition. "Corruption" means first and foremost "rot on the inside," which the Donald displays extravagantly and encourages in the people who surround him. 

Democratic politicians denouncing Donald Trump use the label "corruption" -- meaning rotten at the core -- constantly. For example, I got this today in a fund appeal from Gavin Newsom: "the Trump administration is a corruption story."

• 8 or 9 countries he's done major golf course or development deals with.
• Meme coins and stablecoins.
• The Peace Board is about getting a piece for Witkoff and Kushner.
• Donald Trump Jr. with the drone and mineral companies.
• This isn't about bibles, sneakers and watches on the Trump store ...It's the greatest grift we've seen in our lifetime.

Gavin is not my guy, but he know where GOP rot is and calls it out.

The deepest example I've seen of using the label "corruption" to describe expansively what decent citizens are up against comes from James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Texas. 

"We are living in an era of corruption. When I say corruption, I don't just mean illegal activity. I mean corruption in the deeper sense -- the rotting of something from the inside. 

Politicians serving billionaire mega donors instead of their constituents. That's political corruption. the top one percent owning more wealth than the entire middle class -- that's economic corruption. For profit social media algorithms sowing division in our communities and turning neighbor against neighbor -- that's social corruption. Our systems are rotting from the inside out. The ties that bind us together are unraveling. 

The most powerful people in this country are profiting off our pain. Profiting off our division. Profiting off our disconnection from one another. This is, at its root, a spiritual crisis. And it will require a spiritual solution." 

Clip by way of Simon Rosenberg. Talarico sees rot and claims to want to help us do better; maybe he will, though his electoral challenge is great.