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And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye... [1]

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Date: 2025-03-15

An open note to Democrats:

Let’s start off with the obvious. President Trump’s Administration is the most corrupt Presidential Administration in history. The prior number one was President Harding’s Administration with the Teapot Dome scandal. However, while many people in the administration were enriching themselves, there’s little evidence that President Harding cashed in. On the other hand, President Trump is diving into the rewards of the Administration’s corruption.

And the Democratic Party cannot use this as a line of attack on the Trump Administration.

Why, you might ask. Because the obvious Republican response is that the corruption has always been there in Washington. At worst, the Trump Administration might be just a little more corrupt than previous administrations.

The level of corruption in the Trump Administration is a quantum jump upward from previous levels of corruption. Claiming that it’s always been like this is one of those Big Lies that the Trump Administration loves to use. But as with most Big Lies, if there’s a bit of underlying truth to the Big Lie, it will be believed.

There’s a meme floating out there that says something to the effect that the problem in Washington isn’t the number of millionaires in Congress, but the number of Congressmen who became millionaires while in Congress. Being in Congress gives you a paycheck that’s less than $200,000 a year. With this money, you need to maintain two residences and fly back and forth between your “real” home and Washington. That’s not much more than double the median household income in America, but with much higher living expenses than most Americans face. So how did these Congressmen become so rich?

Until the Democratic Party takes a serious look at closing the loopholes used by their own members in gaining wealth, attacks on Trump look like sour grapes. Look to your leaders. Just how rich are they? And how did they get that money? If you want to tell your fellow Americans just how corrupt Trump and his cronies are, you better have cleaned your own house first.

And don’t just look at illegality. One of the factors that CPAs use when determining if they’re independent is not just the actuality of independence but the appearance of independence. Use that same standard when looking at your leaders. If they look corrupt, it doesn’t matter if what they did was legal. The appearance of corruption is important.

And remember what the Bible say, “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

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