Simple question that comes with a trigger warning. This may seem overly political, but I do consider myself a conservative. Let's face it. Trump ran DC like a monster. It's what he knows. He learned it from his dad. He was a wannabe and it failed. He literally did many things the mobsters did to keep power. As you think about that, you realize DC is like that, no matter the party. Trump just brought it to the forefront. He didn't cut any corners about it. That being said, is the mob alive and well? Has it infiltrated DC? Remember folks, this is how they seized power in cities. They appointed people based off favors. Then they took hold of jobs that yielded power. Then they applied said power. Wielded to it's fullest extent. Seems familiar.
Everyone is a mobster in the game of politics…it’s just a question of how high up the hierarchy you are at. It takes a special breed to flourish and maybe luck…getting away with unlawful conduct , favors, insider trading, lies… You say these things and instantly names like Pelosi, Hillary and Trump come to mind - famous mob bosses or politicians, all the same
Sounds like a bit of false equivalency to me. Other politicians have mixed influence and the powers of office in somewhat inappropriate ways. Have hidden behind their positions for impunity. But Trump broke many barriers, doing unprecedented things to cultivate his personal power. While other politicians may have tried to get certain outcomes or loyalty to the party platform, Trump has asked people to pledge their loyalty to him personally and he's made disputing his own election loss as a prerequisite for an endorsement in elections. I don't think that's simply a difference of degree. Other politicians might do crooked things to win a political struggle while Trump would do it to ensure his personal power.
Cons liked accusing Harry Reid of mob connections, but I never cared to follow up on the backstory. NY and NJ senators are usually bought by "legit" folks in overpriced suits. Every time I see Schumers mug, it makes me want to barf when I think about the values he's supposed to uphold. I think folks like Sinema or that Georgia senator who did inside trades is the New Normal that people have shrugged and mostly accepted... As a side note, tech is becoming as heavily worshipped across parties like finance was in the early 2000s. Makes me think the next Black Swan will come from there rather than the Goldman's or JP Morgan's
When I checked out the mob museum in Vegas they got a wall of mobsters and it was actually diverse not woke forced diversity These people earned their gangster status @J.R. @ROXRAN you see wokesters The people on the wall earned it Italians , South Americans , Africans and Asians United by murder and drugs
organized crime is real they steal laptops to sell overseas and get an army of homeless people to rob stores to resale goods
A lot of what you’re describing is patronage which is something that humans have been doing since we were just at the tribal level. Heck doing favors for support in a group appears to even be something that other apes and even dolphins do.
Rhode Island/Boston is still a mob stronghold, but I don't know about DC. Mobsters have a reputation for being clever that they don't really deserve. Especially the watered down rejects that gravitate to that life these days. They're mostly just dumb thugs that hijack cigarette trucks on the interstate. Politicians are weasels, but generally weasels are good at self-preservation and can see threats coming from a mile away and actual mobsters are generally as dumb as a box of rocks and couldn't catch a cleaver weasel no matter how hard they tried.
