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Accountability Isn’t Optional
Every day, Washington seems to remind us why ethics rules exist in the first place. They aren’t there to make life harder for public officials — they exist to make sure those officials remember who they work for. When the rules get bent or ignored, the consequences don’t just show up on a balance sheet. They show up in public trust — or lack thereof.
And right now, that trust is being tested more than ever.
A Disturbing Pattern
We hear plenty about the allegations of self-enrichment related to the president and his family — but today let’s focus on the House Speaker, Cabinet Secretaries, and even one of the most powerful business figures in the world.
House Speaker Mike Johnson allegedly used campaign funds to pay rent on his DC home. That might sound mundane, but it’s anything but — no Speaker in decades has been credibly accused of this kind of self-dealing. When the most powerful legislator in the country bends the rules for personal benefit, it sends a signal all the way down the chain.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent failed to divest from financial holdings he had pledged to shed when he took office. That’s not a technicality — it raises serious questions about whether his decisions as Treasury Secretary are being made in the public’s interest or his own.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon had her own deadlines to divest — including from bonds tied directly to schools and universities overseen by her department. Those deadlines came and went, leaving clear conflicts of interest on the table.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick took things in another direction, appearing on national television in his official capacity and urging viewers to buy Tesla stock. Ethics rules exist precisely to prevent government officials from promoting private companies for personal or political reasons.
And Elon Musk, never one to miss an opportunity, poured campaign contributions into 19 lawmakers’ coffers just as they filed articles of impeachment against federal judges who had ruled against him. In 16 cases, the checks arrived within a day of those official actions. If it walks like influence-buying and quacks like influence-buying…
Individually, these episodes would be troubling. Together, they point to a disturbing culture of entitlement: public officials who treat the rules as optional, as though accountability is something that happens to other people.
Politics as usual?
For many, it’s tempting to chalk up behavior like this to “politics as usual.” After all, it’s even become normal for public officials and their supporters to deflect questions about corrupt behavior by alleging the same by the opposition. These low standards and expectations make the problem even worse. The above violations aren’t just minor errors or oversights. Ethics laws exist for a reason: to prevent public officials from confusing their own interests with the public’s.
When those lines blur, the damage is deeper than the scandal itself. Trust erodes. Citizens begin to believe — often correctly — that the system is tilted toward insiders. And when enough people lose faith in the fairness of the system, the whole foundation of self-government begins to crack.
That’s why these cases matter. They aren’t about paperwork. They’re about power — who it serves, and who it doesn’t.
What’s we can do about it!
The good news is that there are still watchdogs willing to push back. Our strategic partner, Campaign Legal Center [ [link removed] ] (CLC), has filed formal complaints, demanded investigations, and is helping us all hold leaders to the standards they swore to uphold. This work allows our movement to target not just low-hanging fruit but the most powerful people in the country — because if the rules don’t apply to them, they don’t apply to anyone.
Bright America supporters make this work possible. When CLC moves, they move with the backing of people across the country who refuse to shrug off corruption as business as usual. Every filing, every investigation, every ounce of pressure comes from a collective effort — one that our community helps drive.
A Different Kind of Power
There’s a lesson here, too. Power isn’t only about titles or offices. It’s also about persistence, about citizens refusing to let misconduct pass quietly. When people show up, speak out, and support groups that are willing to fight for accountability, it changes the calculus for those in power. Suddenly, ethics violations don’t vanish into the news cycle — they stick. They get investigated. They carry consequences.
That’s the kind of power Bright America is helping to build: not flashy, not headline-grabbing for its own sake, but steady, relentless, and impossible to ignore.
The Bottom Line
Yes, corruption and misconduct are alive and well in Washington. But accountability is alive, too — because people like you refuse to look the other way.
So let’s keep at it. Share this story. Help us prove that democracy isn’t a spectator sport. The rules of public service are not optional. They never have been. And as long as we keep demanding it, accountability won’t be optional either.

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