Corrupt Influence

In 1887, historian John Dalberg-Acton asserted, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." This theme has a prominent role in history, literature, and even current times. Certainly, many instances have occurred where once someone earns authority, they allow it to get to their head and do things they would not have done otherwise. Similarly, it is also seen that when one is inferior or beneath others, they receive a hunger for power. Specifically, a few prime examples of people who became corrupted because of their dominance include Marc Antony from Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Joseph Stalin, and Kim Jong-un. These rulers negatively impacted the places they ruled all because of their abusive tendencies that came with dominance.

Tulia, a small town in Texas of just under five-thousand people, is a frightening example of how the judicial system is governed solely by racism as well as one corrupt man’s word. In 1999, nearly ten percent of the town’s African American population was arrested in a single drug bust. Of the forty-six people arrested, thirty-eight were African-American, furthermore all were convicted. The remaining seven arrested where know to associate more with the black community than the white in Tulia as well. With the towns income levels averaging at or below the poverty line, most arrested could not afford to hire a good attorney that cared or had the time to care, left therefore with one provided by the state. Consequently, convictions were up to ninety years in jail for allegedly selling three and a half grams, more commonly known as an eight ball, of cocaine in drug-free zones. In was only on appeals, that the convictions where revoked on insubstantial evidence.

The Progress movement or as many refer to as the Progressive era, was a time frame where Americans joined in varying groups to advocate reform across the United States. To elaborate, Progressives believed in widespread change for child labor, industrialization, government, racial reform, and women’s rights. Countless stories of corruption in these areas were brought to light in the Progressive era mostly due to the published writings of Muckrakers. Muckrakers, were journalists who wrote for popular magazines that attempted to expose corrupt political activities from their investigative journalism. Furthermore, I will discuss and compare these groups and their attempts for changes in the rights of child labor, women, acknowledgment of corrupt government practices, racial relations, and industrialization reform.

Under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) in a criminal or civil law suit a pattern of racketeering activity must be ascertained by proving at least two acts of racketeering activity have been performed within an interval of ten years. This law could not be upheld in Sedina, SPRL v Inrex Co., 473 US 479 (1985) as two predicate acts could not be maintained (Twomey, 2013).

Upton Sinclair’s book the Jungle  was about a Latvian family who decided to immigrate to America. They believed that America was a place to go and build wealth and thrive. When they arrive, they quickly realize that the great America is not all it’s described to be. The men in power are corrupt, the living conditions are deplorable, the area is overpopulated and there weren’t enough jobs for everyone. The jobs that were available were hard, and the factories were filthy. People often became ill and did not have enough money for doctors because they were underpaid. Sinclair wrote this book to open the eyes of the American public, and to finally incite change for the poverty stricken immigrants.

Power and corruption seem to be words that most people would say go hand in hand. Why is this, though? Does power lead to corruption or is there some other correlation? Maybe it is powerlessness that actually brings corruption. Everyone to some extent is powerless; even the highest leaders are not absolute. Power is at all times up to question, as anyone could lose it with just a few events. Also the only way to be absolute in power would be complete world domination, which no one person has ever possessed. Thus everyone is somewhat powerless and it is this quality that brings people to corruption as they search for ultimate power.

Each country has its own specific type of government in place in order to create laws and govern the citizens of that nation. Many governments have slowly, or quickly, become corrupted. Some are already corrupt. They can become unfair to regular citizens and even place innocent people in jail to cover up their own nefarious deeds. they print money and cause inflation, which eventually makes all their money worthless. Government officials can even hide important things from the public.

Living in America people learn to live amongst some of the most corrupt human-being known to humankind. Anyone can be corrupt, weather he or she is a corrupt cook working for Burger King stealing money from the cash register to pay bills, or a corrupt politician who votes to raise his or her earnings while committing white-collar crimes against the American public. Theodore Roosevelt could not have been more precise when he said, “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘present’ or ‘Not Guilty’.” Corruption has been around for some time in America, and the government has struggled to void this type of behavior when it comes to politicians. The government’s use of the FBI for investigations, the media

Donald Trump is slowly releasing all the corruption there is in politics and it is upsetting the future of a small handful of bad people that want to stay in control and make their further millions. Unfortunately, these bad people cause a trickle-down effect to many of the good people in politics. These bad people also have enough media access and power to make others believe Donald is the bad person. They can also prevent him from becoming president.

RICO represent Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which is a federal statute that deals with fraud. The United States Congress enacted RICO in the early 1970’s in an attempt to curb organized crime, which includes businesses, drug dealers, and any person subject to committing fraud. (James, Shapiro & Martin, 2006) “The federal law creates an individual “racketeering offenses” that include participation in various criminal schemes and conspiracies, and that allows government seizures of property acquired in violation of the act” (Hall, 2014, p.154).

In response to your above comments, there was always some aspect of corruption in politics as was seen during Reconstruction, particularly in terms of subjugation the African American population. However, the machine politics, seen in the Industrialization era, took on a new meaning as more and more citizens were becoming involved with more diverse needs and convictions. While most were concerned with real change to improve society, others seemed to be more concerned with their own agendas rather than the idea of improving democracy and society. From buying votes with philanthropy to city officials illegally distributing funds to illegal enterprises for their own gain, the “you scratch my back” mentality seemed to rule the political

Many Americans may think that the government is ideal because United States is “the land of the free” but the government is corrupt when looking at it from a different view point. Especially with the election coming, some americans have been observate of the government and its choices.

“BOOM! That’s your story.” Mr. Whitmore stated, as he concluded his explanation on how our simple conversation could be used as my personal narrative portion of an essay.

The summer of 1988, nearly a decade after the Iranian revolution with the war against Iraq coming to an end, the Iranian government committed an act of mass genocide, killing five thousand political prisoners overnight. The event is not particularly known due to the Iranian governments substantial efforts to make sure the news never covered the event. With what started as the Khomeini regime, has overtime grown into an empire equivalent to a religious dictatorship. The use of forceful power by the Iranian government to mask the events of the 1988 Massacre and the 2009 Green Movement has tarnished their reputation of being a credible regime.

The summer of 1988, nearly a decade after the Iranian revolution with the war against Iraq coming to an end, the Iranian government committed an act of mass genocide, killing five thousand political prisoners overnight. The event is not particularly known due to the Iranian government’s substantial efforts to make sure the news never covered the event. With what started as the Khomeini regime, has over time grown into an empire equivalent to a religious dictatorship. The use of forceful power by the Iranian government to mask the events of the 1988 Massacre and the 2009 Green Movement has tarnished their reputation of being a credible regime.