If there's one thing we've learned in the era of Donald Trump it's that a system of political norms doesn't mitigate the behavior of a lunatic with power. In fact, at least one positive outgrowth of Trump's unrelenting intemperance is the likelihood of passing laws in a post-Trump era specifically designed to rein in the many abuses he’s foisted upon the American people in the name of public service.
But this week offered yet another stark reminder that it's not just Trump who is using his position of power to enrich himself at the expense of other Americans—it's a formula for corruption that applies to damn near everyone with whom he surrounds himself. Take Trump's earliest Congressional backer for instance, New York Rep. Chris Collins, who stood on the White House lawn at a picnic in 2017 casually apprising his son of his advance knowledge that the stock of a pharmaceutical company they were both heavily invested in was about tank. Collins, who if convicted now faces the prospect of being sentenced to up to 150 years in prison, had that information because he sits on the board of the Australian-based Innate Immunotherapeutics and was privy to the failure of one of the company's clinical trials before it was made public.
News of Collins' indictment and the epic grifting of several other Trump associates gave Democrats an opening this week to re-up the "culture of corruption" theme that yielded big dividends for them in 2006 following revelations of GOP Rep. Mark Foley's sex scandal involving underage pages. In fact, Nancy Pelosi promised to "drain the swamp" that year as Democrats campaigned, pledging to introduce a series of reform bills within the first 100 hours of becoming Speaker of the House.
That's exactly what Democrats need now—specifics. And not just specifics, but sticky specifics. The problem for Democrats isn't a lack of examples to seize on, but rather that Trump has provided such an embarrassment of corruption riches it’s almost impossible for everyday Americans to focus on any one of them. Democrats have already outlined the areas they plan to overhaul: increasing access to voting, tightening ethics rules for lawmakers and administration officials, and enacting campaign finance laws to fight the outsized role of big money in politics. They're all worthy and well-intentioned goals but the initiative still seems to need an organizing principle that makes it resonate with voters.
The good news is, Trump and his band of thieves have provided the perfect way to lodge several of these reforms in voters' minds by proposing legislation aimed specifically at curtailing the abuses of some of Trump's closest allies. In fact, one Democrat who has been leading the charge on the anti-corruption front, Maryland Rep. John Sarbanes, has already introduced a bill that serves as the perfect example of such a strategy.
In response to revelations about Trump's one-time lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen charging obscene consulting fees to various entities seeking access to the administration, Sarbanes joined with Democratic Sen. Michael Bennett of Colorado to introduce a bill overhauling lobbying rules. In part, the legislation would require people selling themselves as "strategic advisers" like Cohen did to register as lobbyists, which is not currently required by law.
This gave me an idea: Why not introduce a handful of reforms all centered around Trump's corrupt coterie, almost like baseball cards but with the offender's picture, a title for their offense and a brief description of the abuse the law would seek to eradicate.
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