LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON AND OUR CULTURE OF CORRUPTION:

What separates Johnson’s story from other tales of political venality is the vast impact of his legacy. The average US citizen’s trust in government peaked at 77% during Johnson’s time as President and has drifted lower ever since, sitting at just 20% today. He also uncorked an orgy of government spending, both in support of the war in Vietnam and in pursuit of his ambitious domestic agenda. Bigger government means bigger opportunities for grift, and Washington DC’s insatiable and bipartisan appetite for both was irreversibly accelerated by Johnson. Measured as a percentage of gross domestic product, US Federal Government spending has nearly doubled since the 1960s.

Normalization of behavior like Johnson’s has led to a continuing debasement of US politics to the point where scandals that would have previously ended careers are now routinely blown off as standard operating procedure. Today, members of Congress openly and flagrantly trade stocks based on inside information, having gone so far as to carve out an exception that legalizes an activity that is still a crime for the rest of us. Government regulators routinely end up as well-compensated employees of the very companies they are meant to oversee, creating giant and obvious conflicts of interest in the process, and selective use of the powers of government against political opponents is now commonplace. An entire cottage industry of rent-seeking enablers – lobbyists, attorneys, and consultants – dot the interface between the private and public sectors, making it impossible for entrepreneurs to thrive without paying a healthy vig to this state-sponsored mafia.

Sadly accurate.