We Live In A Political World: #90 / Also Contagious

The picture above, from a CNN web posting, ran under the following headline: "Are Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump the same person?" The CNN posting pointed out a lot of similarities. Let me point out another one.

I, and many others, have been appalled by the way Donald Trump has turned the presidency into an opportunity to advance his family business, and to make a personal profit from what most voters believe ought to be a public service assignment. If you have any question that this is exactly what our current president is doing, please click the following link, for an article in which Newsweek details the "Trump Family’s Endless Conflicts of Interest." In fact, the Newsweek article probably only scratches the surface.

A neighbor, by no means a Republican, and by no means a Trump supporter, recently dropped off a book for me to read (see below).

Clinton Cash is a pretty convincing demonstration that Hillary and Bill Clinton have teamed up to achieve exactly the same kind of transformation of public service into personal economic wealth that is so evident in what President Trump and his family are doing. The events that the book documents are just as distressing as the actions of our current "first family," making it appear that it is not only our current president, but other federal office holders, too, past and present, who are more devoted to filling their personal bank accounts than to achieving any public good.

In yesterday's blog posting, I was talking about how current social change movements seem to be exhibiting "contagious" qualities, giving hope to those who would like to see some fundamental rearrangements to this nation's political, economic, and social order.

Bad things are contagious, too! One reason that the public, in general, is so dissatisfied with our political system is that all too many elected officials "work their positions," not for the benefit of those who elected them, but for their own, individual economic advancement. Trump, the Clintons .... We are only scratching the surface here!