Ryan ChartrandMarlize, you are absolutely right. The thesis became clear to me about halfway through the article (published yesterday): all politicians are corrupt, some more than others. Ultimately, all politicians are corrupt to some extent. The ones that were funded the least, however, have less favors to hand out upon reaching the White House. Voting for the charismatic candidate (which people inevitably do) will not stop corruption. I believe the solution does lie in smaller government and third party candidates.
As Marlize pointed out, smaller government limits the power of politicians, reducing their ability to hand out favors at the taxpayer’s expense. A smaller government would waste less taxpayer money to operate and would reduce the influence of the individual politician. Another way to reduce corruption (not mentioned in the article) is through third party candidates. Obama spent record amounts of money on his campaign trail while lesser-known Ralph Nader spent nothing in comparison. If a 3rd party candidate like Nader were elected, he would have less favors to repay to his donors. I encourage our nation to break the two party stranglehold, and vote for real change: vote third party next time.
Aaron Baldwin
electrical engineering sophomore