How Corruption Got This Bad

Commenters argued the piece is about deep and systemic corruption in the U.S., with several saying separation of powers and checks and balances have effectively broken down. potamic claimed that when one party controls all branches, independence collapses and power corrupts; maerF0x0 said the U.S. has legalized corruption by making money the primary cultural value; lioeters described modern elites as a transpartisan club profiting from global suffering and called for global reform. asphodele invoked a Mencken quip to mock the electoral outcome that enables this capture, and lapcat noted the author is a former DOJ prosecutor who blames the Supreme Court while acknowledging Congress could act and that justices are political appointees.

Commenters debated mechanisms and remedies. Nevermark and lapcat emphasized technology and the internet lowered coordination costs, enabling centralized, party-spanning control and easier consolidation of power; treis and others countered that concentrated power has long existed and the internet mainly made it more visible. Views split between those calling for structural, institutional redesign to guarantee independent branches and those framing the problem as an age-old elite phenomenon that modern tools simply amplify, with differing optimism about whether meaningful change is feasible.