Corruption paradox

[trenton]

This is an interesting and complicated issue. Pretty much everybody wants to be anti-corruption. The approval of Congress is at an all time low with 82% of Americans disapproving of their actions. Reasons for this disapproval include partisanship, favoritism toward the rich, election security (including the lie that the 2020 election was stolen), nepotism, and much much more.

The paradox comes up when being too critical of governmental corruption can destabilize a country. The legitimacy of those in power and all of the laws they pass are drawn into question. The question becomes how much corruption is tolerable? Yes the American government is corrupt in more ways than can be listed, but if the governed population does not believe in the stories of the great democracy, then what will we be left with? A power vacuum could easily be created if the United States suddenly became very strict on corruption.

Some examples in other countries could be the corruption blitz in South Africa, the Tigray war of Ethiopia fought because of an illegal election, or the constant need to maintain a massive propaganda machine in places like North Korea and China. If the illusions propagated by communist countries were suddenly pulled away, then wouldn't that create a massive destabilization of these regions?

How should anti-corruption be applied in the middle East? The United States is constantly struggling to maintain a positive relationship with Saudi Arabia in spite of their deep corruption in order to keep receiving oil. This could become the source of massive political pressure from around the globe to switch to renewable energy, similar to the pressure placed on Europe because of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Is there any amount of corruption which should be tolerated in order to avoid unnecessary destabilization?

I think these questions are important because faith in the US government is very low and there are many calls to violence especially by MAGA. In this case their claims of corruption aren't even real and it is very destabilizing. Is there a more organized way to confront governmental corruption without undermining faith in democracy? What would it take to restore faith in democracy?