Feb. 11, 2025
By Jacob Collins Dodd
Staff Writer
Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term as U.S. president on Jan. 20. Earning 50% of the popular vote and attaining the votes of over 77 million Americans, he had a decisive victory.
This achievement came despite his multitude of controversies, such as announcing that he could “shoot somebody” without losing voters in 2016, proclaiming that he needed military generals like those of Adolf Hitler in 2020, being found liable for 34 felony counts in 2024 and saying he would date Ivanka Trump if she were not his daughter in a 2006 interview on the daytime talk show “The View.”
This raises the question: What has happened to decency, ethics and morals in politics? Over time, the ethics politicians are expected to maintain have deteriorated, as voters are increasingly willing to overlook egregious behaviors when politicians’ government policies appear to align with their political preferences or personal interests.
Trump’s lack of decorum has set a trend for Republican politicians, including JD Vance, his pick for vice president. According to Vance’s misogynistic and twisted perspective, the vote of a woman without children holds significantly less value than that of a mother.
On Aug. 19, 2024, Santos pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, credit card fraud and embezzlement of his campaign funds.
In a 2021 interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, then-senator Vance complained the United States was run by “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.” He claimed they want to inflict their “misery” on those who have children. Astonishingly, this is the man Americans chose as their vice president.
Similarly, at Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, business magnate Elon Musk, whose money and influence contributed to Trump’s election victory, directed what appeared to be a Nazi salute to the audience, which was met by applause.
ILLUSTRATION BY LUCY CARDONA
Additionally, following the 2024 presidential election, Musk publicized the names of government employees he felt were unnecessary and needed to be “removed” from their positions. In 2022, Musk made another troubling statement when he posted on X that he would send “space dragons with lasers” to Ukraine.
Republican Rep. of Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene, who Trump said was “very respected in Congress,” was elected to her role in 2020. That same year, she declared on Facebook that Muslims experience no discrimination and that they are seeking “special treatment,” claimed in a video that all Democratic politicians are “Satan-worshiping pedophiles” and suggested in an interview posted on Facebook that the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced with a body double before her death. Nonetheless, Greene was reelected to her position in 2022 and 2024.
The most notable figure exemplifying the erosion of political decency is George Santos, who served as a Republican representative for New York from January to December 2023 before the House expelled him. Investigations by the House Ethics Committee found Santos used campaign funds to pay his rent, withdraw money from an ATM and splurge on designer shoes from Bergdorf Goodman.
On Aug. 19, 2024, Santos pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, credit card fraud and embezzlement of his campaign funds. His sentencing is slated to take place on April 25. Despite his status as a felon, Santos has garnered nearly a million dollars on the personalized video messaging platform Cameo and his podcast.
The state of modern American politics has hit an all-time low, as decency, ethics and morals have become afterthoughts. Sadly, they are no longer essential qualities for leadership.
Without a united effort to restore integrity and civility in political discourse, this erosion of principles will be a defining factor in the decline of America’s global empire.
