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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNo Justice, No Peace
It is crystal clear to literally anyone, even a child, that justice is not blind and only applies to those that cannot afford to work the system to their advantage. I mean you see rich people do it all the time. More often than not, even when held accountable, the penalty is token accountability at best.
All that said, there is literally ZERO CHANCE that the DOJ would ever, even in a Democrat controlled administration/DOJ, would ever file charges against someone like Kegseth. Politicians are still politicians and accountability among their own ranks is incredibly rare.
Most people don't realize how close it was that Nixon would be impeached and he and his VP were overt, in your face, criminals on a scale never seen in our past and since then, until now.
What this administration is doing is extremely evil, even by Nixon/Agnew standards. The problem is, despite the rethoric around it, I have no faith that the political willpower to actually do anything about it is there to actually address it.
It's a key feature of a country in decline, people would rather bury the issue and move forward then face the reality that our government is either corrupt or inept or both. It started with the Bush Jr administration and not holding them accountable I mean for the love of Pete, when Dick Cheney died, people praised him as a great politician and not a war criminal.
The concern is that if Democrats hold them accountable while in charge, they will just come after Democrats when Republicans are in charge, which they have, I mean they are still trying to investigate Hillary Clinton...again.
Our system is broken and it's no one's fault but it's more afraid of accountability then the crimes it's letting people commit.
We need a political accountability commission, made up of 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans, not currently holding office or a lobbying or a PAC position, 10 years of service, only Democrats can choose a Democrat and only Republicans can choose a Republican on the committee, each member is the head of the committee for two years and then it must go to a member of the opposite party. They do not answer to the executive or legislative branches of government but a special and secret judicial panel made up of appellate judges that change membership every 7 years. They will review recommendations from the commission and can order the member of Congress or the executive branch be removed from office. There is no trial or political pressure. There are no appeals. If removed, they are not allowed to hold any public office again.
They can even recommend it for the president but that still has to go through the normal impeachment process. The other key feature is that the entire, unredacted, report on the case and all evidence and reasoning, must be made public within 30 days of the completion of the report.
I've tried to close as many loopholes as I can think of to make it as non-partisan and non-political as possible but let me know if I've missed something.
We have to fix our broken system and make politicians accountable to the people that elected them. Otherwise we are, very literally, watching the final days of our country because it will not survive this corruption and apathy much longer.
yellow dahlia
(4,086 posts)Once accountability slips away it is difficult to retrieve it.
Thank you for your thoughtful analysis.