A friend sent me a comment and a link (mostly regarding Sonny Purdue – Agriculture Secretary under Trump), insinuating corruption. Here is my response:
I am still making my way through the document link – very informative and thank you. I do not want to go down the road of “well they did it, too”, as there seems to be a response of “that’s just laughable” – but, in fact, the devil remains in the details and what some want to dismiss because they fall back on that excuse, it can’t be ignored. Put more simply – the only reason many folks see the corruption elephants (your words) in the stampede today is quite probably because this is the first time many people have cared to even go on the safari. Those of us that have been monitoring and even researching and writing about these for several decades have seen that stampede played out time and again… and each one is ”the worst ever” and makes previous admins “pale in comparison”. How soon we forget Clinton: “The Most Corrupt President in American History” https://ashbrook.org/publications/onprin-v4n6-mayer/ , not to be outdone by Bush 43: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/463257-rating-donald-trump-at-least-hes-not-george-w-bush , then Obama (those google returns were impressive, here’s a short one): https://countynews4you.com/beyond_the_rhetoric_just_how_corrupt_were_the_obama_regimes.html
My point is really quite simple: We’re going to eventually reach the same conclusion with Biden/Harris. The other side, whichever one that is year-on-year, is going to find reasons and research to flaw the other. Trump, I would agree, raised so much hatred in the other side (as did Obama and Hillary, actually), that they will tirelessly search for reasons to find them corrupt. I think the only ones I haven’t found a great deal of evidence on were actually Ford and Carter… Although people really were unhappy with the Nixon pardon (Reagan was my first vote, FYI 😊). If Sonny Perdue appointed a bunch of agricultural lobbyists into the DoA under Trump and pressured China to take genetically-enriched corn seeds (as mentioned in the link you sent), I’m actually unimpressed – every single administration appoints friends, allies, and lobbyists (who are donors) into ranks of their admin. Every official benefits somewhere from some deal for something. Qualifications can be argued in many of those cases, for every admin. Again, the question is whether this is the safari where you pay attention…
We need to get back to moderates not only in political office, but also the tone and rhetoric. I’m frankly tired of “he was the worst ever” – not because I believe it to be true or false, but rather because that’s all I hear being fed to all of us every day, every year. None of these guys are good, great, bad, or terrifying. But the narrative doesn’t fire us up unless they are painted as “the worst ever”.
