After several decades of gross misbehavior on the parts of three branches of government, the American people appear to be asking the rhetorical questions, “What if political corruption is bad? And what if campaigning against corruption is a winning issue?”
Recent polls have found that large shares of both Democrats and Republicans think their party focuses too little on corruption. Indeed, backers of both parties thought corruption was the biggest issue being ignored by both parties.
Wow, yes. Perhaps voters have their heads screwed on right. And also, how do they even know about the growing corruption problem? Long gone are the days when newspapers competed to expose official wrongdoing. There is nothing in today’s fragmented information landscape that is like past scandals pursued by dogged hordes of investigative reporters and orating TV correspondents.
Journalists fuss over candidate fundraising totals without mentioning that, for example, a single super PAC backed by the AI industry has already raised $75 million to spend in congressional races. That still falls behind the $171 million raised so far by a single cryptocurrency industry PAC. This spending will all be “independent,” and much of it will not be fully disclosed. Yet, with spending like this, these industries could effectively buy Congress.
Then there’s the orgy of self-enrichment. Forget the planned White House ballroom or the gilded doorknobs in the Oval Office. According to Forbes, President Donald Trump and his immediate family increased their net worth by $3 billion in one year by leveraging public power. Other analyses peg the one-year amount at $1.4 billion.
Opposition politicians have started to pound away. But it’s not enough to decry sleaze. Jaded voters think “everyone does it.” Indeed, the group End Citizens United in 2025 published a poll suggesting citizens thought Democrats were more corrupt than Republicans.
House Democrats recently announced a task force to assemble an anti-corruption agenda. Joe Morelle leads the drive. Morelle vowed months ago, “This is going to be the most significant governmental reform since Watergate.”
That’s a high bar. The Watergate scandal led to laws to curb presidential abuse and clean up politics: A public financing system sought to curb big money in presidential campaigns. The Inspector General Act of 1978 placed watchdogs in major federal agencies. The Budget Impoundment and Control Act aimed to ensure that Congress, not the president, retained power of the purse. The War Powers Act tried to curb executive warmaking.
After scandal comes reform. Not always, but that’s when it happens. What would a reform agenda look like today?
Craig Corsini is a writer and grandfather in Marin County.
