Corruption in US Government Essay -- American Government

The story of the founding of the United States is a story nearly every United States citizen understands at the very least a rough version of. The story of how a group of patriots overthrew standing British power who were invading their rights to privacy, taxing them unfairly, and overall not giving the colonials a square deal. This story gives American’s pride in their identity and government. It also serves to legitimize the current US Government, for the current officials follow the same Constitution set up by those Patriots who fought the British. However, since the founding of the US Government there have been numerous cases in which the government has betrayed its people and committed corruption. When the media finds out about such a corrupt act, generally a scapegoat bears the entirety of the blame. In this paper I will argue that this is wrong, and in reality corruption occurs on several different levels and is carried out by multiple people. One of the examples of US government corruption that had a major impact on the American people is often overlooked. Fred Hampton, a leader in the Black Panther Party during the late 1960’s was deliberately and brutally murdered by the US government on December 4, 1969. This act not only infringed on his rights in the worst possible way, it also had an immeasurable impact on the progress of African Americans in American society. Hampton was a rising leader within the the Civil Rights Movement, and at the young age of 22 had a lot of potential. There is no way for us to know exactly what his impact would have been had he been able to live his life to it’s natural death, but we can be sure that he had great skills and worked hard when it came to the advancement of the African American... ...ntative democracy, which means that the people govern through representatives. When the public has no way to know the full truth of which representatives have been true to the will of the people, then we lose the democracy. It is admittedly easier to simply choose a single person to cast the full blame of corruption on an individual. However, it is not a practical way to allow the public to govern. They have a right to the truth and both the media and the government have responsibility to see this right is fulfilled. Works Cited Hampton, Fred, Mike Gray, and Howard Alk. The Murder of Fred Hampton. Chicago, Ill: Facets Video, 2007. Krakauer, Jon. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman. New York: Doubleday, 2009. Print. Lardner, Richard. "Retired Three Star General Kensinger Censured in Cover Up after Tillman Death." Associated Press (2007): Web.