Corruption is like the highly contagious virus that causes measles. It doesn’t take much time in the presence of the airborne virus to contract measles. Once corruption infects a group of people or an institution, it spreads everywhere. It only takes a small amount of corruption to potentially destroy the system. In “American Covenant,” Yuval Levin says, “A deformed constitutionalism can deform our society, undermining our capacity to treat one another as dignified equals and to take our common life seriously.”
Corruption, including bribery, enriching those in power through connections and policies, disregarding the rule of law, and kickbacks, is well-known. But I want to talk about lesser-known types of corruption.
Those in the administration all took an oath of office to honor and protect the constitution. Yet many have yielded to the corruption of the ends justifying the means, whether constitutional or not.
The administration undermines the perception of improving efficiency by being secretive about its use of funds, compromising data centers and disrupting vital government services, such as Veterans Affairs and Social Security. Immigration “reforms” have included canceling humanitarian visas and sending some detainees to a foreign prison. Immigrants, both legal and illegal, have been denied due process. Law firms and universities have been targeted for discipline in violation of First Amendment rights. The administration is pursuing its ends with no regard for the means — with little concern for the people affected or for the laws it breaks. Is this corruption in action?
Let us wash away our excuses and our self-deception and do what we can to eradicate the corruption that has contaminated our government.
Anticipatory obedience occurs when a company or firm decides in advance to comply with the demands of the executive branch in order to prevent being targeted next. Although this might seem like a wise move to protect the company, if the choice is against their stated values, we have to wonder whether they still have integrity in their dealings. Is acquiescing inviting corruption?
When those who have the power to call out corruption choose to remain silent, we lose trust in them. It is difficult to see our senators and representatives remain silent out of fear of retribution, from desire to be on the powerful side or because they want to get their legislation passed. We elected these women and men to represent us, and we are frustrated when they do not honor their oaths of office to the Constitution. Is their silence corrupting them?
I am seeing more cruelty resulting from this administration’s executive orders and how they communicate. Immigrants are treated with contempt and detained far from their homes. Our leaders treat our allies with disdain. I have seen cruelty in political discussions on social media, with name-calling and threats. The cruelty corrupts public discourse and can influence others to be cruel.
The social norm we taught our children was to treat everyone with respect and dignity, but family members have recently observed how cruelty corrupts social norms and hurts people in various ways, including the following experiences.
Children and young adults in Africa whom we support in their educational goals describe some of the challenges they face daily: shortages of food and jobs, the ravages of malaria, and social instability. Now that U.S. foreign aid has mostly stopped, we know many will struggle for the necessities of life without hope that help will come.
One of my daughters is a doctor who cares for the underserved, refugees and patients living with HIV. If Medicaid is slashed or HIV medications are no longer provided, many will suffer and some will die.
One grandson went to science camp recently, but the immigrant parents of 22 children kept their children home out of fear that ICE might detain them while their children were at camp.
Another daughter is very concerned about the dehumanization and persecution of trans people.
We have all seen mean-spirited social media posts or emails about a variety of topics. Cruelty is being normalized. Is this a corruption of our values?
Let us wash away our excuses and our self-deception and do what we can to eradicate the corruption that has contaminated our government. In our current political situation, many have felt paralyzed or have given in. We must now call on our government representatives, our businesses, our media, our universities and most importantly, we the people, to fight the contagion of corruption in any way we can. We need to inoculate ourselves against it by treating everyone with respect and dignity, no matter their status or situation.
It will take effort to recover and heal in order to regain our former strength of integrity, trust, and norms of social and ethical behavior. But the epidemic of corruption must be stopped!