JULY / AUGUST 2019 | MOTHER JONES 5purchase the president makes more attractive by conducting the
nation’s business in front of rubbernecking crowds.
This is a massive scandal, and Ornstein is right: In any
normal world, it would be front-page news for months. But
it isn’t, because of what Corn calls the “white tablecloth prob-
lem”: When you spill red wine on a clean tablecloth, it’s obvi-
ous and embarrassing. Spill on a tablecloth covered in stains
and oh well, what’s one more?
But that doesn’t mean the tablecloth is clean. It means we
need to back up and look at all the stains.
Everyone in politics and journalism knows that Donald
Trump uses his presidency, often in pretty low-rent ways, to add
value to his business. Everyone also knows that he has packed
the administration with people who are not only scandal-ridden
themselves, but seem determined to hijack public resources for
the benefit of wealthy private interests.
Consider: The epa is run by a former coal lobbyist. An ex–oil
lobbyist heads the Department of the Interior. Betsy DeVos,
funder and champion of private religious schools, runs educa-
tion policy. Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, who both profited
handsomely from the 2008 collapse, are in charge of protecting
the economy. And at the Department of Justice, a top official
who recommended putting more immigrants in privately run
prisons recently hopped over to a job at the private prison com-
pany geo Group, which pays detainees $1 for a day of labor and
has seen multiple inmates die on its watch.
There is a word for this, but it’s not “collusion” (or even, in
many cases, “crime”). It’s “corruption.”
Corruption is one of those words, like “lie,” that journalists
have sometimes been reluctant to use, except in very specific
instances where wads of cash change hands in alleyways. But
it’s time to confront, and name, the more systemic form of
corruption—consistent manipulation of the system by those
with money and power.
This did not begin with Donald Trump, nor is it limited to
his administration. There is graft at every level of government,
from Alabama’s former “beach house sheriff ” to Baltimore’s
book-peddling ex-mayor. You find it in major corporations—
remember Volkswagen’s emissions cheating—and in elite uni-
versities. It’s an international phenomenon that autocrats and
demagogues use to enrich themselves, and then exploit by
running against “the swamp.”
But it’s not normal or inevitable, especially at the level we’re
witnessing today—and that’s one of the few things Ameri-
cans across the spectrum can agree on. “Corrupt government
offi cials” has been the top fear of adults in the United States,
in Chapman University’s Survey of American Fears, for four
years running. When, in a 2018 poll, the Kaiser Family Foun-
dation added “corruption” to the list of topics that respon-
dents could peg as the issue they most wanted candidates
to address, it immediately shot ahead of health care and the
economy. And a 2017 survey showed that the White House
is considered the most corrupt institution in the country.
These polls don’t ask people what they mean by corruption,
and it’s a safe bet that some of it is in the eye of the beholder:
Democrats may see abuse of power where Republicans see good
policy (e.g., tax cuts for corporate interests) and vice versa (e.g.,
public pension funds). What’s striking is that across the board,
Americans feel that money has an unfair influence on politics
and policy, and that this hurts them personally.
The pervasive perception of corruption is exactly why so
many people couldn’t stop talking about the college-admissions
scandal: It was an encapsulation of fake meritocracy. You tell
your kids it’s all about working harder and being smarter—and
then, just like that, you’re reminded that it’s not. Some folks are
just too rich to fail.
In the dictionary, “corruption” actually has two meanings: (1)
“fraudulent conduct by those in power,” and (2) “the process by
which something [becomes] debased”—like political norms, or
the expectations we have of our leaders, and of ourselves. Cor-
ruption at the top debases the entire system.
But thankfully, norms don’t change only in one direction.
When enough people identify a problem—say, marriage inequal-
ity or sexual harassment—a big shift can come quite suddenly.
But for that to happen, people need a framework for seeing the
problem as both systemic and subject to change.
That’s why, this summer, we’re launching the Mother Jones
Corruption Project, which will be one of our top reporting
priorities in the next two years. We aim to mobilize a team,
including reporters fully dedicated to it, and give them time
to really connect the dots with all the storytelling resources
of our newsroom, from graphics and videos to data journal-
ism. We’ll dig deep into some of the
most important and underreported
scandals, from the way specific in-
dustries have steered policy to their
advantage, to the global business en-
tanglements and conflicts of interest
of Trump and other leaders.
We’ll tackle corruption systemat-
ically, with an eye to the common
themes. And we’ll release the reporting
in a major series and a special issue of
the magazine in the summer of 2020,
when it can have a big impact.
This is a project unlike anything
we’ve ever done, and it will take more
than $1.2 million to fully fund. We have
raised seed funding to get started, but
we’re looking to readers to contrib-
ute $500,000 so we can do the full-court press we think the
moment demands. (At the time of this writing, readers have
already pitched in more than $200,000 online.)
Over the next 16 months, beyond the wrangling over candi-
dates, we will decide whether this country should be run by and
for those who can pay to get their way—or whether we’ll recom-
mit to the promise, too often abandoned, of a democracy where
facts matter and no one is above the law. You know where we
stand. And we are emboldened by knowing how many of you
are standing with us. nDo you have ideas we could dig into, or an experience of how cor-
ruption affects you personally? Send us an email at talk@mother-
jones.com, or leave us a voicemail at (510) 519-MOJO.TO OUR READERSCorruption is
one of those
words, like “lie,”
that journalists
have sometimes
been reluctant
to use. But it’s
time to name and
confront it.