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
Thomas thinks hanging out with the billionaires who bribe him makes him seem like one of them, but it’s clearly just the opposite. The optics are so awful, and so obvious, it’s amazing how someone could be so lacking in self-awareness.
The fascist political project--and I guess that's now mainstream US Republicanism--is to make a mockery of the rule of law, of the very idea of rational policies practiced fairly for the common good. Getting the Supreme Court to destroy the rule of law, though, is just A+ comic book supervillainy
They truly believe that the government mandating that anyone receive less money than someone is willing to give them is a moral atrocity. All the more so for something as nebulous as “the public good”
