I don't think that power itself is necessarily a corrupting force, but it is a magnet for those who are corrupted.
That's not how the real world works. We're not in a comic book or self help course where if you want something badly enough, you'll get it.
Plenty of people want to be successful rappers (insert any other competitive profession). Most of them don't make it.
Now if you genuinely believe the deciding factor is 'willingness to go to any ends', you're simply empirically wrong. That's not how the real world functions and if it did, complex modern society would not be possible.
When one person agrees and the other disagrees it comes down to interpretation of the rules and then imposing those rules. It can become very despotic quite fast. And it’s not because the people are like that. The “system” makes them into that. In the case above, if the agreer sees the disagreers side this encourages other disagreers to flout whatever it was and things can devolve into anarchy. So you necessarily have to enforce some rules.
> All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.
Until someone doesn't agree with a law. Then it will return to coercion.
However, it is a fact that politics is a nasty business. We benefit when the people capable of doing it are the ones that we put in power. Otherwise, we will get gobbled up by the other factions and entities that do emplace that sort of person in their political institutions.
Personally I find it very interesting that these behaviors have allegedly been known by those in his working radius for many years, yet they are only coming to a head now after Cuomo's profile was elevated within the party and on the national stage during the scary slog of covid.
I am leery of the use of sexual indiscretions to hamstring political operators. If he did something illegal (to be clear, I am not saying he is innocent nor guilty), they should take it to court rather than to the New York Times.
Democracy has less corruption than other systems due to separation of power, but it's foolish to think there isn't temptation to become corrupt when you think you can get away with something.
The definition of corruption is willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.
Given a tribe is big enough, it'll have multiple sub-tribes in it. Now go back to paragraph one.
That's why politics is corrupt, as soon as a tribe is above a tiny size, people act dishonestly to further their sub-tribe's interests.
