# Government corruption 101



## Stormcat (Mar 27, 2018)

Every good villain needs a crew of henchmen, especially if the villain in question is incredibly stupid and behaves like a spoiled child if not monitored. (Any resemblance to any real-life government official is purely coincidental. ;-) )

The villain in my story is a king. His kingdom is supposed to be a constitutional monarchy, but because there are so many of his sycophants in the parliament, the system of checks and balances is virtually non-existent. Unlike most constitutional monarchies, this one is based on the American system of government... if the president/executive branch was installed for life but the supreme court justices had term limits.

Now, the resistance is working to depose the king and install his much more sensible son in his place. However, they cannot touch the king unless they dispose of his lackeys in the parliament. If the current king has no support/people bribing him/henchmen with their own agendas, then there will be no resistance when the prince takes over and begins to install progressive reforms across the kingdom. So the resistance must first remove the "enablers".

Question is, I don't exactly know what sort of character to plop in there as enablers/targets for the resistance. I don't really know how a government gets corrupted in the first place. Sure, lobbyists can give "campaign donations" to delegates who support their causes, but what about the delegates themselves? Would certain corrupt delegates have fatal flaws the resistance can exploit? Would some officials be dealt with simply by counter-bribery?

Schoolhouse Rock taught me how the system is supposed to work, but how do I break it?


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## andrewclunn (Mar 27, 2018)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCmJUobwKQk


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## Ralph Rotten (Mar 27, 2018)

Think Devin Nunez. The kind of guy who would go straight from a committee meeting investigating possible voter interference, and report the details to the same guy they are investigating.


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## Stormcat (Mar 28, 2018)

andrewclunn said:


> www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCmJUobwKQk



Everything I need to know about Objectivism I've learned from the Bioshock series... most importantly, that Objectivism doesn't work.


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## Stormcat (Mar 28, 2018)

Ralph Rotten said:


> Think Devin Nunez. The kind of guy who would go straight from a committee meeting investigating possible voter interference, and report the details to the same guy they are investigating.



Uh... More details, please?


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## DanR84 (Mar 28, 2018)

I'd recommend checking out the documentary, Get Me Roger Stone, on Netflix to get an idea of a controversial political character and one who will do anything, good or bad to get the job done.

It's hard to define his actual role but lobbyist and political fixer probably best describe him.

The documentary gives a good idea of his character and personality.

Also check out this excerpt of an irish politician being secretly recorded talking about obtaining planning permission for a company, in exchange for money https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpko_hXWb7Q.

Heres the link to the full documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMJ2Iyo3uXY

It's an interesting watch and may give you some help in writing about dubious politicians


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## Ralph Rotten (Mar 29, 2018)

Stormcat said:


> Uh... More details, please?



Devin Nunez chairs a committee that is supposed to be investigating possible collusion between the Trump Campaign and the Russians.  After the first day of the committee, Devin Nunez left the committee chambers and drove straight to Trump's office and briefed him on what they had found.  Essentially he reported directly to the guy he was potentially investigating.  Crazier yet, he didn't even try to be sly about it, just drove straight from the meeting to the oval office, walked right past the press pool like it wasn't a glaring breach of ethics.

The story had a 3 day news cycle.


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