Welcome to the Third World America

and you don’t even have to leave home!

This is the flag of a first world nation.

Germany doesn’t really have corrupt politicians. Here in Der Speigel a writer takes the contrarian view, and says no, we really also do have scandals like Italy, Spain and the US. What can he come up with in the way of scandal?

“In 2011, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned from his post as defense minister when it emerged he had plagiarized parts of his PhD thesis.”

He has a PhD thesis? And he got to be in the government? That never happens in the US.

And I supposed to be scandalized by the fact that he didn’t write the whole thing?

That’s a scandal? What else you got, Germany, because over here in New York State you’re looking pretty damn clean.

“The University for Hannover is currently investigating whether Ursula von der Leyen, hotly tipped as Merkel’s potential successor — should give up her doctor title.”

Another plagiarizer? Academic? Set to run the country?

Shame!

“The president of Gemany got a slight discount on his lease of an Audi.”

He got almost 100 euros off a month! Horror!

Okay, here’s a bigger one:

“Volkswagen, the archetype of German companies and the epitome of reliability, so brazenly manipulated the emissions data of its automobiles that it has single-handedly transformed “Made in Germany” from a seal of quality to a warning.”

Well, yes, but that’s not the government. Doesn’t count. Sorry. Anything else?

“There is plenty of evidence to suggest the 2006 World Cup in Germany only came about because of fraud and bribery.”

Okay that’s bad… but it was also not within the confines of “German” government.

So German are perfectly willing to be corrupt when they work at the EU or for Volkswagen or FIFA. But somehow these same people are not particularly corrupt when they work for the government.

The chancellor, the most powerful politician, Angela Merkel lives in the same apartment she lived in before she was elected. Her husband walks over to the grocery store to buy the same groceries he bought before she was elected.

The closest thing to a scandal for her comes up in the Podesta Wikileaks, as Hillary Clinton’s son-in-law tried to fix arrangements at the time of the Greek crisis to make a killing on insider trading with Greek debt (and losing it all, dummy can’t even to insider trading right). So as long as Angela manages to stay away from Hillary, she’s as clean as a whistle.

You see: it doesn’t have to be like it is here. We don’t have to tolerate the revolving door of corruption we see all the time in America. What passes for a scandal in Germany… it’s a joke compared to what John Podesta and his crew did every single day.

I like a lot of things about Germany. Planning, urban and rural, is rational. You have a bike path around the city most of the time and plenty of green space. Germany cities are very livable. The playgrounds are beautiful. You see nice schools set in parks surrounded by bikes. Farmland is farmland. You go to the center of the city and there are stores and shops, you walk around and do your business. The parking lot is where the parking lot should be. You don’t see ugly stuff, or inappropriate development. The economy is humming along, crisis after world crisis. People get the right education. The whole thing basically works.

Why? Because politics, out in the open, democratic politics, is where the real business of government actually occurs. In America, we do politics, but only as a show. The real business, both local, state and national, is done after the public is out of the way. What politicians say has nothing to do with what actually happens. It’s all backroom deals.

You see that ugly stupid development? Well, that’s because someone got paid off. You see that idiotic invastion of Libya? That’s because a politican is angling for a better position in the next election. You mean, you didn’t have an open, honest debate in congress before you committed to an invasion? No, we didn’t. Could such a major decision happen in Germany without consulting the legislature? Never. And in the legistlature, the public positions of the parties they represent will give you some clue as to what they will say and do about matters of state interest.

No one in Germany ever has to wonder what will happen if they get sick: they will go to the doctor and insurance will pay. No one ever has to wonder how they will pay for college: it’s all free.

It would nice not to live in the Third World. It would be nice to have sane development and energy policies. But to achieve first world status, we couldn’t let Hillary Clinton make 153 million by “making speeches” to banks. Robert Mugabe must be damn jealous.

Trump is not going to help. Neither would Hillary. We need a progessive party that promotes the Bernie Sanders agenda and we need honest politicans who do not get rich, no revolving door. Why are people from Africa and the Middle East, where the weather is nice, dying to get to Germany, where the weather sucks? Corruption matters. We can’t let politicians and their minions get rich.

If I’m wrong, and America is basically functional, and the Democratic Party is something other than a crime syndicate, why did Donald Trump win?