Thread by @boardingsoon

I knew a guy in Brazil in the 90s who sorely missed a corrupt president we impeached soon after getting democracy back. He was a nice guy, upper middle class, well educated, super smart. I couldn’t understand how a guy like that could be in favor of a corrupt government. /1

One day I asked him. He shrugged and said that sure, he knew corruption was bad for the country, but he didn’t trust bureaucrats. Too much of an unknown. With a corrupt guy, he argued, you know everything you need to do to get what you need. Whether it’s a bribe, a favor, /2

some kick back. It’s quid pro quo all the time, and business people get that. You get an honest guy in power, he said, how can you get ahead? I was dumbstruck and never forgot that. We are 7 weeks away from a generation-defining election. We hear about the evangelical vote /3

the anti-abortion vote, the resentment vote, the racist vote, the liberal vote, the pro-environment vote, the anti-gun vote. Endless voting blocks on both sides. But I bet there is a block out there, unseen and unheard, who want this administration to continue not in spite of /4

it’s corruption, but because of it. There are people who found out just how easy it is to get ahead with a corrupt government and a president whose need for adulation is so transparent. People who think laws, fairness and transparency get in the way of their plans. /5

They are not ideological, they are opportunistic. Trump is their dream come true. Through the rot he created they make money, amass power, pull strings, erode safeguards. Am I being paranoid?

I fucking hope so. /end

Ugh “its corruption”.