I woke up this morning and read an article in The New York Times that caught my attention.
The headline was: “Democrats Tie Corruption to High Costs in Final Midterms Push.”
And I thought to myself, well, isn’t that interesting?
We’re three weeks away from the midterm elections, and suddenly Washington has discovered corruption!
Where the hell have you people been?
Because I’ve got news for you.
Corruption didn’t start with Donald Trump.
It didn’t start with Joe Biden.
And it sure as hell didn’t start three weeks before an election.
This has been going on for decades.
And the American people have been paying the price.
Now, I want to talk about something that I think is fundamentally wrong with the way our government operates.
And it starts with one simple question.
Who the hell does our government actually work for?
Does it work for the 340 million Americans who get up every morning, go to work, raise their families, pay their taxes, and try to make ends meet?
Or does it work for the corporations, billionaires, lobbyists, and special interests who spend enormous amounts of money trying to influence what happens in Washington?
Because those are two very different things.
And here’s what fascinates me.
We’ve somehow created a political system where perfectly legal activities can create enormous conflicts of interest.
Think about that.
Members of Congress can receive campaign contributions from industries they’re responsible for regulating.
Lobbyists can spend their careers influencing legislation and then move into government positions.
Government officials can leave public service and take lucrative jobs with companies affected by the policies they helped create.
And under current rules, members of Congress can still own and trade individual stocks, subject to disclosure requirements.
Now, not every one of those activities is corruption.
But every one of them raises questions about whose interests are being served.
And I think Americans deserve answers.
Here’s where this gets really interesting.
The Democrats have apparently discovered that when you connect corruption to the cost of living, people start paying attention.
Well, of course they do!
Because Americans aren’t sitting around their kitchen tables discussing congressional ethics rules.
They’re trying to figure out how to pay the mortgage.
They’re trying to afford groceries.
They’re wondering why their health insurance costs so damn much.
They’re trying to understand why their children can’t afford to buy a house.
And they’re asking a perfectly reasonable question.
Why is life getting harder when America is supposedly the richest country in the world?
Now, we need to be careful here.
Not every high price is caused by corruption.
Inflation, supply chains, housing shortages, competition, and government policy all play a role.
But political influence can affect which solutions get considered, which industries receive favorable treatment, and which reforms never make it to a vote.
And that’s where we need to start asking questions.
Take health care.
Why does America spend so much on health care compared with other wealthy nations?
Why is our system so complicated?
Why do patients, doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, insurers, and government agencies operate within such an expensive administrative structure?
And how much does the political influence of the industries involved affect our ability to change it?
Those are questions worth investigating.
And they’re exactly the kinds of questions that led me to create the Truth Party.
Because I got tired of watching Republicans blame Democrats.
And Democrats blame Republicans.
And every two years, they come back and ask us for more money and another vote.
Meanwhile, the fundamental problems remain.
Now the Democrats are promising to crack down on corruption.
Fine.
Let’s examine their proposals.
But let’s examine the Republicans’ proposals, too.
Because this shouldn’t be about which political party gets to accuse the other one of being corrupt.
It should be about creating rules that apply to everybody.
No exceptions.
No special privileges.
No loopholes for whichever party happens to control Congress.
And here’s something else.
I don’t believe every politician in Washington is corrupt.
Far from it.
I believe there are people in both parties who genuinely want to serve their country.
But even well-intentioned people operate within a system that creates incentives and conflicts of interest.
And changing those incentives is a lot more important than simply changing which party controls the building.
That’s why I’ve been advocating reforms through the Truth Party.
Greater transparency.
Restrictions on congressional stock trading.
Stronger safeguards against conflicts of interest.
Real accountability for elected officials.
And a serious examination of the role money plays in American politics.
But here’s the most important part.
We need the American people to get involved.
Because Washington isn’t going to fundamentally reform itself simply because we ask nicely.
Citizens need to understand how their government works.
They need to know who’s financing campaigns.
They need to know who’s lobbying their representatives.
They need to understand how legislation affects their lives.
And they need to hold elected officials accountable for what they actually do, not just what they say in a campaign advertisement.
You know, I’ve spent the last couple of months talking to strangers.
I’ve interviewed people from all walks of life.
Different ages.
Different backgrounds.
Different political beliefs.
And one thing keeps coming up.
People want to be heard.
They want their concerns taken seriously.
And they want a government that responds to the problems they’re experiencing.
That’s not a Republican idea.
That’s not a Democratic idea.
That’s an American idea.
So when I read this article about Democrats suddenly connecting corruption to affordability, I see an opportunity for a much bigger conversation.
Not simply about who’s going to win the next election.
But about what we’re going to demand from the people who do.
Because the election is only one day.
Accountability is every day.
And if we’re serious about reducing corruption, we need reforms that survive changes in political power.
We need rules that apply equally to Republicans and Democrats.
We need transparency that allows citizens to see how decisions are made.
And we need a political culture where public service means exactly what those two words suggest.
Serving the public.
Not serving yourself.
Not serving your donors.
Not serving the corporation that’s going to offer you a job when you leave office.
Serving the American people.
All of them.
And here’s my final thought.
The most important question in American politics isn’t whether Republicans or Democrats are going to control Congress after November.
It’s whether the people who control Congress are going to be accountable to the citizens who put them there.
Because if we don’t address that question, we can keep changing political parties every two years and still find ourselves having the same conversation.
And frankly, America deserves better than that.
I’m John Eagleton.
And that’s why I started the Truth Party.
It’s time to turn spectators into citizens.
Thank you.
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