Is It "It's The Culture Of Corruption, Stupid"?

Perhaps the arrest of Republican Rep. Chris Collins was an inflection point, because today (more than ever it seems) a Republican "culture of corruption" theme is finally being discussed -- if not pushed -- as a potent weapon for Democrats.  Helpfully, Steve Benen summarizes the "culture of corruption" imbuing Republican politics, from the Trump crime family on down, that has to become part of the Democrats' strategy going into the mid- terms:

Republicans are certainly making it easier for their opponents to frame the debate this way. This morning, for example, Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) surrendered to the FBI after being indicted on insider-trading charges. His colleague, Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.), learned yesterday that a Virginal special prosecutor is examining an electoral scheme launched by his campaign. 

This comes the day after Forbes published a rather brutal piece that raised the allegation that Donald Trump’s Commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, “could rank among the biggest grifters in American history.” 

Meanwhile, the man who led Donald Trump’s political operation in 2016, Paul Manaforrt, is currently on trial for a wide variety of alleged felonies. The star witness is Rick Gates – the deputy chairman of Trump’s campaign – who’s testified about all the crimes he and Manafort committed together. 

And that’s just this week. Worse, it’s only Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Trump’s EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, was forced to resign in the face of corruption allegations. Trump’s Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has faced related allegations. Trump’s former HHS secretary, Tom Price, was also forced to resign after misusing public funds. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, recently acknowledged that when he was in Congress, he would only meet with lobbyists who made campaign contributions. 

He was, at the time, telling a group of bankers how they could use their money to influence the administration’s agenda. 

Of course, then there’s Trump himself – one of only three sitting presidents in American history to become the subject of a criminal investigation. And really, that’s just the start of the corruption questions surrounding his presidency.

Needless to say, none of the above sits well with the voters who have been turning out to support Democrats in historic numbers, like college- educated voters of all political persuasions, men and (most of all) women.

With the proviso that all elections are local and local issues must be served, combined with a positive agenda of protecting health care and women's reproductive choice, better jobs and wages, common sense gun control, re-uniting immigrant families, shoring up our alliances, etc. (in other words, serving as a check to Trump/ Republican sociopathy), Democrats must also brand themselves as the REFORM party that's going to stanch Trump/ Republican self- dealing, stealing and corruption. Democrats need to be aggressive on all fronts;  they have great candidates, now they need to close the deal.