On Law, Corruption and Puritanism in American Politics

It is widely assumed, as we all know, that there's vast corruption in American politics.  Indeed, there's a new television series out right now based on that thesis.  And I'll freely admit that this country has had its share of corrupt politicians, or ones who acted in what I'd regard an amoral or immoral fashion.  I could go into that topic and express my views on those people now, but I'll forgo it for another point.

I wonder, quite frankly, to what extent American politics are characterized not by corruption, but by lingering Puritanism.  Quite a lot, I think.

Take the current flap over Hillary Clinton's email, and her use of a private rather than a government account.  Who cares?  I don't.  In most countries, quite frankly, this would not be a matter of the slightest concern. But, in the same spirit that caused the Puritans to ban Christmas, the whole country seems to be having a big to do over this.  Only in the US would such a minor matter be regarded as really serious.

Or take the personal behavior of our politicians in other areas.  In recent decades this has been a huge issue (although it seemingly was not in prior decades, and for reasons that baffle me JFK still gets a pass in this area).  We've nearly deposed a President in recent years over this, while in contrast a trial is going on in Italy over  a politician whose behavior in this area was wild in the extreme.  It isn't that something is being done in Italy so much as its the case that things have to get hugely out of hand before anything is done.  Here, matters that are unseemly but not really threatening the nation can get you almost impeached.

Or take our insider trading laws. We've actually made it a crime to act on knowledge you pick up in the course of your employment.  That's frankly amazing, and criminalizes a natural part of human nature. We tell people that they can't act on what they know, as that would be unfair to those who don't know, what they don't know.  Fairness is nice, to be sure, but criminalizing knowledge is pretty extreme really.

Corrupt?  I don't think so much.  Puritanical is more like it, in these regards.