“If serving in an elected office ever becomes a career, corruption will surely follow.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

This is a subject I have addressed in the past and am still passionate about. In my estimation Jefferson nailed it. Now that corruption in government is socially acceptable for public discussion, I’ll hit it again.

The Founding Fathers did not design the United States Constitution to have anything but citizens serving in elected office for a short time, then returning to their regular life. In Article I of the Constitution, the founders set a two year term for the House of Representatives and a six-year term for Senators. In the 18th century, the founding generation could not imagine anyone wanting to leave their vocation and become a career politician. However, Jefferson clearly recognized the potential danger. Sadly, professional political “careers” started fairly early in the 19th century.

“Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.” ~ President Harry S. Truman

Some 150 years after Jefferson expressed his concern, President Harry Truman reenforced the concerns of Thomas Jefferson and acknowledged the reality that there are “crooks” in politics. I am not so naive as to think that corruption has not existed early after the first United States Congress met. After all, corruption is only one of many human foibles that have existed since biblical times. I am also not so naïve as to think only one political party is corrupt. Ever since the political parties (something else some founders were concerned about) created their respective “machines,” politics in America has been corrupt. I suspect that in most of the 20th century there was an ongoing challenge about which political party could cheat the best for any given election. I heard rumors even as I grew up. During those “bad old days,” America continued to function reasonably well because deals were made in the smoked filled backrooms of Congress and similarly smoked filled rooms at the state and local levels. Corruption in those days was relatively minor.

However, in the last 40 years, corruption has morphed into big business, really, really Big Business. As a result, without a doubt in my military mind, America has the very best Congress money can buy. Based on the information already revealed by the Trump administration and the independent investigative media people, government corruption is likely to exceed a trillion dollars.

That is big business. Thanks to the efforts of DOGE and Nick Shirley, corrupt politicians all over America have been scrambling to cover their rear ends (like cockroaches scramble when you turn on the lights). Then there are the political cockroaches in the California legislature who are pushing a bill to outlaw investigative reporting in the state.

You know who the most corrupt crooks in politics are; they are the ones fighting the hardest to stop the investigations into corruption. There are crooks in the Democrat, Republican, and Independent parties.

“The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

The two favorite potential solutions are a constitutional amendment which will never happen because the congressional crooks, who have to initiate such a move, would not slam that cash register shut. The second is a Convention of States; this too would not happen because the state level crooks, who have to agree to hold such a convention, don’t want that cash register closed either.

Interestingly enough, sixteen states have established term limits for their state legislators and governors. The voters of these states recognize the dangers of career professional politicians. That also demonstrates that We the People do hold the solution, the only solution, to ending the out-of-control enterprise corruption in United States Congress. That solution is to never, ever vote for an incumbent. Allow each and every person only the one term the Founding Fathers identified in Article One of the United States Constitution.

As with the first quote, Jefferson nailed it again in the second quote.

The United States Congress has become a legalized criminal enterprise.

Written by Steve Rossiter for Canada Free Fress ~ April 30, 2026