the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on corruption is basically at a point where the only thing that counts as a bribe is someone handing a public official a giant bag of money with a dollar sign on it while saying “this is a bribe” out loud
it’s not just that, e.g., Clarence Thomas loves to be bribed. the conservatives really believe that spoils rightfully accrue to the powerful, and that exchanges of money and power are a natural and just part of politics
