Hillary Clinton: Corruption In The United States

“Corruption, improper and usually unlawful conduct intended to secure a benefit for oneself or another its forms include bribery, extortion, and the misuse of inside information. It exists where there is community indifference or a lack of enforcement policies.”(Encyclopedia Britannica). Today political Corruption in all forms exists in every country in the world. In some countries it is more prominent then in others, but no matter where you go it still occurs. Recently in mid 2013 some political corruption was brought to light in New York. “Since 2007, state senators have been more likely to be arrested then to lose their seats in a general election,” (New York Public Interest Research group). In April of 2013 New York State

Political corruption is a major problem in the US today. It involves almost all levels of government and affects people from all walks of life. Public office is a noble post and citizens put their trust in government officials to carry out their constitutional duties for the benefit of the citizenry. The problem comes in where both elected and unelected officials perform their duties with the goal of personal gain in full view of the law. The ethical and moral wrongs of corruption are unjustifiable in any context.

In the case of money, it is corruption. Some would argue that money is the root of all problems, and that there is no instance where money doesn’t cause corruption. This threat is constant in the media today: the election, the celebrities, the news. These and many more are considered corrupted by a source of great wealth, being that the cantaditas pay for votes, the celebrities are paid for their acting in the media, and the news stations are paid by different political parties to represent them in broadcasts. Sadly, as this does occur, many people are represented for their money and not for their talent due to the overvaluing of money in America. It is most definitely true that corruption does occur as a result of money, but not to a complete extent. While these instances do occur in today’s world, there is reform in action as well as the fact that not all Americans are led towards this path of deception. It is true that many people are drawn towards money when it comes to picking a leader or immersing oneself in the media, there are many cases of Americans going towards those who exemplify ideals similar to their own over those who have larger supplies of wealth. This paves the way to the realization that not all Americans overvalue

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.

The 100th year anniversary of The Declaration of Independence is here and the Nation is as united as it is equal. None. Although football games continue like Princeton vs. Rutgers the United states is in shambles. Following the war between the states a plan to reconstruct was put into place. It was proficient, effective, and controversial for many years. However, after the long Civil War and years spent to rebuild the Nation, the North Ultimately killed reconstruction because of government corruption, the focus change in North, and widespread racism throughout the nation.

President and First Lady Obama, who are well-loved and respected, bet their legacy on Hillary Clinton and now it’s tarnished. The American People felt the President and First Lady was trying to convince them to vote for someone who was corrupt and deserve to be in jail. Therefore, it was a hard sell even for the Obamas.

All the while there is corruption caused within industrial society by the corporate dominance of politics, those are the people that were left to suffer the harsh treatment of chasing after wealth. Winners and losers were prevalent within the economy, society as well as politics in America as a result of The Gilded Age.

Corruption can come from many different people. When the same group of people are always in government it becomes a situation where this group of people runs government. And when someone wants to be elected they might do whatever the group of people wants to be in there favor. The Federalist paper number 68 it says “He might otherwise be tempted to sacrifice his duty to his complaisance for those whose favor was necessarily to the duration of his official consequence” (Hamilton). There are also people from foreign countries that want to be the leader of America just for the benefit of their home country. They

Corruption is when the Government is bribed by interest groups or corporations so that the bribers’ interests are put forward before the interest of the people. During the Gilded Age corruption in the senate was rampant. According to the political cartoon “The bosses of Senate”- (Progress and Poverty, 324), the corporations were the real entities behind running the Senate. The Senate, as the cartoon shows, is acting only in the interests of the different monopolies that are bribing the senate. However, this does not neccesarily mean that the Government cannot act in the intersts of its own people.

As said in every economics class, the reason every business goes into business is to make money. The same can be said in criminal cases involving businesses. In the majority of cases, executives and people highly ranked in the company tend to bend the numbers in the financial/accounting areas of the business or corporation. They do not do this for fun, but rather to make money. Something needs to be done before corporations really get out of hand.

There are few nation-states that one could point to as being truly “corruption-free” (Denmark hosts the most corruption-free gov’t according to Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index). However, this is a trait that holds back the growth of the whole of society, weakening the disadvantaged and emboldening the powerful. As Transparency International goes on to state:

I believe the Constitution is too vague. The dilemma lies in the details or lack of details. If the objective is free speech, it is much easier to just simply say free speech then to try and express every single instance where free speech is and is not allowed. While vagueness does allow for flexibility, it also allows some corruption, but corruption only comes from those who abuse the system. One example of corruption is in December 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union reported what they believed was one of the worst abuses of the Constitution since 9/11, the National Security Agency tapped into telephone calls of American citizens without a warrant, which violates the Fourth Amendment.

For starters, corruption, our country is full of it. The definition of corruption is “dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power.” Now this could be by bribery, which in most cases it is in America. We don’t take pride in our own self accomplishment anymore. We pay off people to do our work for us. Even within our own government we see corruption. People with money just need to wave it in someones face and they’re good to go. The other item of business dealing with our government would be our president trying to change our amendments that the founding fathers originally wrote back in 1791. The only thing that should be allowed to be done to amendments is editing them, but you should not be able to completely get rid of an amendment.

It would be convenient to start this research paper by stating that corruption is a challenge mainly for businesses in developing countries and that it is unrelated to the current affliction of the economy in the United States. It would also be convenient to claim corruption has declined in America as a result of awareness raising campaigns and the numerous anti-corruption laws. But none of those aforementioned statements would be true. Corruption is not the exception, but rather the rule in today’s business practices. In 2004, Daniel Kaufmann, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution and former director at the World Bank, calculated an index of "legally corrupt" manifestations which is defined as the extent of undue influence

Corruption is a complex political, social, and economic anomaly that negatively affects developing and developed countries. It weakens democratic institutions, holds economic development, widening the rich-poor gap and certainly leads to governmental instability. The World Bank definition of corruption states that “…the abuse of public office for private gain”.