General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerican Kakistocracy
NORM ORNSTEIN
Kakistocracy is a term that was first used in the 17th century; derived from a Greek word, it means, literally, government by the worst and most unscrupulous people among us. More broadly, it can mean the most inept and cringeworthy kind of government. The term fell into disuse over the past century or more, and most highly informed people have never heard it before (but to kids familiar with the word kaka it might resonate).
As I wrote my new book with E.J. Dionne and Tom Mann, One Nation Under Trump, I kept returning to the term. Kakistocracy is back, and we are experiencing it firsthand in America. The unscrupulous element has come into sharp focus in recent weeks as a string of Trump Cabinet members and White House staffers have been caught spending staggering sums of taxpayer dollars to charter jets, at times to go small distances where cheap commercial transportation was readily available, at times to conveniently visit home areas or have lunch with family members. While Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign after his serial abuse, othersincluding Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, and Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, remain in place.
With Pruitt and Price, the problems were evident before they were confirmed. Pruitt told the Senate he had done no official business on a personal email account while serving as Oklahoma attorney general. When a judge ordered Pruitts emails to be made public, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rushed through his confirmation before they appearedand, too late, they showed he had misled the Senate. Tom Price had engaged in a string of stock transactions while in Congress that led to accusations of manipulation and insider trading; McConnell and his Republican Senate colleagues brushed the evidence aside. Similarly, Attorney General Jeff Sessionss misleading claims in his confirmation hearing about his own relationships with Russians during the campaign met with no pushback or interest from Republicans on the Judiciary Committee.
The Constitution prohibits anything of value other than a salary going to a president from the federal government or the states. (Trump had also been pushing the District of Columbia for more favorable property taxes.) The failure of GSA top officials to act on Trumps apparent violation is under investigation by the agencys inspector general. Foreign-government entities falling over themselves to stay in the hotel and schedule meetings and events there at premium prices may have violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause, just one of a string of in-your-face elements of a president enriching himself via his office. Doubling the initiation fee at Mar-A-Lago to $250,000, and advertising that those putting on weddings there or at his Bedminster, New Jersey, country club might get a photo-op with the president of the United States, are equally outrageous examples.
more
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/american-kakistocracy/542391/
pbmus
(12,422 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)he is making money from this
lunatica
(53,410 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)then what is their long term goal? If they weaken the US to the point where we are no longer a competent and reliable actor in the global community, no will deal us other than Eastern princes, warlords of Africa, and the tyrants of Banana Republics.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)Look at Trump's cabinet members and agency flunkies.
barbtries
(28,798 posts)it is what corruption and greed have brought them to. Too much hubris to see it. i believe republicans' long range goal is permanent republican rule. which would constitute dystopia for most and would never stand because the people will rise. oh yes they will.
malaise
(269,038 posts)MORONS and thieves
Enoki33
(1,587 posts)internationally. Seems difficult not to say dotard and his family of enablers are not serving the interests of a foreign power - Russia, with its rigged electoral system and ruling cadre of criminals.