Recently, Jon Stewart focused in on the corruption case against New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, who has been deemed guilty of cartoonish examples of corruption. Of course, Menendez has denied the charges, but the evidence against him is quite overwhelming. It seems that Menendez always is at the center of serious breach of ethics charges. Like most people here in my home state of New Jersey, I am tired of Menendez, and wish that he would go away. Not as much as I would enjoy seeing Trump go away - throw him in a high security prison and throw the keys away - but still, it would be nice to see Menendez finally gone from the public eye.
Yet, this was more than merely Stewart attacking one specific senator. In fact, Stewart focuses more on how Congress and the Supreme Court and the White House - literally representing all three branches of government - have become used to taking advantage of what amounts to legal corruption. Often, these are examples of corruption which are highly visible to the public. Both parties point out the abundant examples of the guys in the other party seemingly guilty of high levels of corruption, and then either ignore or brush aside examples of their own corruption. Look at the Trump family and their ridiculous, also cartoonish loyal supporters, and their attacks on Hunter Biden as proof of this.
In fact, this all feels inevitable. When you empower high government to police themselves, of course you are going to get a lowering of the bar. This, in turn, lowers public faith in our government in Washington, and with very good reason. Regardless of our political leanings, we all tend to view Washington as a place of slimy politicians guilty of disgusting examples of corruption and greed.
Stewart argues that Menendez really must be quite dumb. After all, he tried, and apparently succeeded, in making himself filthy rich with these absurd levels of blatant corruption. Why go the blatantly illegal route, when as Stewart points out, there are now so many legal ways for Congressional politicians to benefit from de facto legal examples of corruption?
Watch the video below for some of these specific examples. It is actually a funny bit, but funny in a sad, depressing sort of way. After all, Stewart is shedding light on something which, it seems to me, most Americans want to largely ignore and dismiss. Feels to me that a people get the government which they deserve, and a country that focuses so much on slimy get rich quick schemes, and even elects a president who made a large part of his fortune on just such tactics, is getting exactly the government that it deserves, a reflection of the people and their values themselves.
Jon Stewart Gives Sen. Robert Menendez a Corruption Lesson | The Daily Show
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