Kim Jong-il
Hosni Mubarak
Bahsar Assad
Saddam Hussein
Omar al-Bashir
Islam Karimov
Robert Mugabe
Osama bin Laden
I could go on all day . . .
Needless to say, there is a reason why, in a democracy, we expect our elected leaders to provide a full and honest disclosure of their assets.
And more from the comments:
Augusto Pinochet
Slobodan Milosevic
Ferdinand Marcos
1:02 PM PT: Thanks for the recs. I would like to add a little context to this diary:
When I wrote the diary I was thinking about systems of government that don't have accountability for their leaders. These regimes are highly corrupt and authoritarian. In a democracy we hold our leaders to a higher standard and anyone who wants to participate as a candidate in that system should also hold themselves to that higher standard. When Republicans complain about the inherent corruption of government it is best to think about what types of regimes are actually the most corrupt and lack of accountability for its leaders is at the top of the list. Is Romney an authoritarian dictator? Absolutely not, but how he has handled the issue of his personal finances I think speaks to the probability that he is a corruptible figure. As voters that is an extremely important issue to take into consideration when going to the polls.