The Corrosion of Conservatism by Max Boot

Author:Max Boot
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liveright
Published: 2018-09-24T16:00:00+00:00

VI. ETHICS

One of the great non-mysteries of the Trump administration is why cabinet members think they can behave like aristocrats at the court of the Sun King. The Department of Housing and Urban Development spent $31,000 for a dining set for Secretary Ben Carson’s office while programs for the poor were being slashed. The Environmental Protection Agency paid for Administrator Scott Pruitt to fly first class and be protected by a squadron of bodyguards so he didn’t have to mix with the great unwashed in economy class. Two other cabinet secretaries—Veterans Affairs secretary David Shulkin and Health and Human Services secretary Tom Price—were fired over excessive travel expenses. Pruitt eventually got the boot too.

Why would cabinet members act any differently when they are serving in the least ethical administration in our history? The “our” is important because there have been more crooked regimes—but only in banana republics. The corruption and malfeasance of the Trump administration is unprecedented in US history. There are only a few points of comparison: Crédit Mobilier and the Whiskey Ring during the Grant administration, both scandals involving groups of shady businessmen who defrauded the government with the help of federal officials, including reportedly President Grant’s private secretary. Teapot Dome during the Harding administration, when the secretary of the Department of the Interior was convicted of taking bribes in return for providing oil companies with leases on federal land, including the Teapot Dome reservation in Wyoming. And, during the Nixon administration, Watergate—a catchall designation for Nixon’s attempts to obstruct an investigation of the burglary of the Democratic National Committee carried out by his campaign and his misuse of the FBI and IRS to spy on his political opponents—along with the bribe taking, extortion, and tax fraud committed by Vice President Spiro Agnew while he was governor of Maryland. There have been other notable scandals, such as Iran-Contra and the Monica Lewinsky affair, but neither rose to the same level—the Iran-Contra affair was not done for the personal profit of the Reagan administration officials who traded arms for hostages to Iran and then funneled some of the proceeds to support Nicaraguan rebels, and, while Bill Clinton was caught lying under oath, it was to conceal a tawdry sexual liaison, i.e., essentially a private matter.

By any historical standard, the Trump administration is in an unethical league of its own—and the president has set the tone.50 Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Flynn and deputy campaign manager Rick Gates have pleaded guilty to felonies; his onetime campaign manager, Paul Manafort, faced thirty-two criminal charges, including conspiracy against the United States; and his personal lawyer was under federal investigation. Manafort even went to prison while out on bail for attempting to tamper with witnesses against him.

Trump skirted nepotism rules by hiring his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner to work in the White House. Ivanka, who had not divested her ownership stake in her clothing company, has used her high visibility to market her products. In the meantime, according to the

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