Why Trump Gets Away with His Corruption

Matt Yglesias: “Some people think it’s because the voters don’t care about corruption, but I think that’s probably wrong.”

“Searchlight Institute polling on this shows that voters just have an incredibly low estimate of the baseline level of integrity of politicians. Seventy-one percent say the ‘typical politician’ is corrupt. Typical Republican? Sixty-eight percent. Typical Democrat? Sixty-one percent. Seventy-two percent say that ‘long-term elected officials’ are probably corrupt.”

“I think it’s hard to make political hay out of Trump’s corruption because, while it looks extraordinary to me (and probably to you if you’re reading this), many voters see it as pretty normal.”