Misconduct, now commonplace – April 14, 2026

Another sad truth for us to explore with this conversation, the ever increasing to now commonplace occurrence of misconduct by those in office. Happening in a way that is both bipartisan with a trove of examples and an awkward application of selective outrage in response.

Misconduct has plenty of forms of course, everything from ethics violations and insider dealings to sexual misconduct and real acts of deviance.

No matter what is being accused, sometimes confessed to even if by resigning to something far less prominent, the overall theme here is how prevalent this sort of behavior has become.

The below list is in no particular order, which is to say there should be no inferred ranking or anything of the like based on how this was put together. The bigger point being how frequently this is seemingly happening.

A few examples, of many

We can start with Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL 20th) and a House Ethics Committee find of her guilty of 25 separate ethics violations related to campaign finance and financial disclosure. This is on top of a November 2025 indictment for allegedly stealing roughly $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster relief funds intended for Covid-19 vaccinations. She accused of diverting those funds into her family’s healthcare business that ended up in her 2021 and 2022 campaigns.

The whole thing ended up as falsified financial reporting, as above the dubious campaign spending also included luxury personal items, including a 3-carat diamond ring, designer clothing, and a Tesla.

And how could we forget Matt Gaetz (R-FL 1st) who faced a series of highly publicized allegations going back to 2021, ranging from sexual misconduct and statutory rape to illicit drug use to obstruction of Congress. While the Department of Justice closed its criminal sex trafficking probe in early 2023 without bringing charges, a 2024 House Ethics Committee report found “substantial evidence” of multiple violations. Some of the rumors at the time involved private jets, 17-year old girls, and cocaine.

Ultimately Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress in November 2024, immediately after being nominated by Donald Trump for U.S. Attorney General. He later withdrew his name from consideration as the Ethics Committee’s findings threatened to block his Senate confirmation. Now doing commentary.

Flipping back to Democrats, and very recently, Eric Swalwell (D-CA 15th) resigned from Congress just this month over numerous and very serious accusations including sexual misconduct, financial and legal improprieties, and perhaps by one account at least including rape.

In terms of sexual misconduct, most allegations surfaced just over the last month forcing Swalwell to withdraw from the California Governor’s Race, which occurred just before his resignation from Congress. A former staffer alleges that Swalwell raped her in a New York hotel room in 2024, she was too intoxicated to consent. This is after a separate incident in 2019 with her as well. Added to this is at least three others have come forward alleging unsolicited messages and nudes sent to them, and another saying it happened also on Snapchat.

As for legal troubles Swalwell faces several investigations, various state and federal, into the illegal hiring of a nanny hat violates immigration laws even paying her using campaign funds. His wife may be in on that. We also have the potential of mortgage fraud, the Department of Justice (DOJ) looking into misleading statements on loan documents. And of course, Swalwell’s own rumored past with Christine Fang, an alleged Chinese intelligence operative.

Back to Republicans, Tony Gonzales (R-TX 23rd) also just recently resigned from his House seat in Congress after previously saying he would not seek reelection. Turns out he had an affair with a former staffer Regina Santos-Aviles. She ended up losing her own marriage, went into depression, and ultimately committed suicide. During the affair Gonzales reportedly pressured Santos-Aviles for pictures and somehow in the mix another staffer came forward claiming the same. Explicit images back and forth with at least two staffers.

Before deciding on resignation, Gonzales just in March saw the House Ethics Committee established an Investigative Subcommittee to determine what all he violated in the Code of Official Conduct. There was bipartisan pressure for him to resign or face an expulsion vote.

Take a wild stab in the dark at how many members of Congress, going back to 1789, have seen themselves expelled from Congress… only 21. And that is out of thousands that have served in Congress. This effort takes a two-thirds majority vote to pull off and it appeared by some accounts Gonzales may could have been number 22 before having to retreat. In every context.

Of course… Trump too

Everyone alive knows by now this whole Epstein mess, including various accusations that President Trump knows more, or has been far more involved in the details, than any TruthSocial post admits. For this conversation we can skip a recount of history on all this and focus on today, but with a summary that several accuse Trump directly of being involved in Epstein’s long tenure of luring young, impressionable, and naive underaged girls for various acts that would pass no legal or ethical standards. The number of victims from Epstein’s conquests with friends is staggering. As is the fallout for plenty associated with Epstein.

That said and as of recent, it is all too easy to argue that the entire affair has reached a critical political boiling point, that no amount nor severity of distractions for the Trump Administration can fend off.

Sure, we have millions of DOJ released documents including videos and images, with plenty of redactions, suggesting a wide network of involved parties and solid attempts to cover the whole thing up. Just this month as well, President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi over this and other issues (mainly being unable to lawfare some of Trump’s opposition.) Congressional Democrats are feed up with Bondi refusing to comply with law and subpoenas, with Republicans doing all they can to slow down any effort for anything else to come up.

Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have been busy, just not much in relation to actually handling the business of the nation.

And recently, First Lady Melania Trump held a rare news conference to forcefully deny any personal relationship with Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell, calling reports to the contrary “lies”. Even though there are dozens of pictures and accounts of all four of them together on multiple occasions.

Of course there have been partisan Congressional probes of the whole thing, going after deposing key figures like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, Epstein’s former lawyer and accountant.

Shit show deluxe is putting this mildly.

Where are we going with all this?

Contrary to how mainstream media likes to handle these things, usually but not always form the confines of “us vs. them” slide-rule standards and political vanity, we have a few difficult conclusions for this conversation.

One, and arguably most importantly, it is relatively bipartisan in the world of politics and wealth for someone in a position of power and/or prominence to take advantage of their status in life with less than ethical or even legal considerations. Be it some long term set of actions resulting in harassment to sexual misconduct, or engage in financial decision making resulting in ethical and legal fallout, or both we simply see way too many examples of the behavior.

Probably too difficult to argue for some singular reason, but there is enough evidence to point to a few common denominators with all those listed above, and plenty of others too numerous to mention, as to why this is so prevalent.

Predictably, there is both a psychological answer and a philosophical answer.

In psychology this is called disinhibition. For many different reasons, but for the purpose of this conversation we are talking about a mindset based on having “power” in social, economic, or governmental context. That assignment of position by whatever means comes with the potential to no longer suppress inappropriate behaviors, make way to act on impulses or emotions, and ultimately engage in risk-taking in total disregard for social norms, ethical considerations, or rules of any kinds, up to law itself.

Look at this as a result of entitlement. For lack of a better way to put it, a sort of celebrity status mixed with authority obtained from some position in government and/or wealth that allows one to look at others as subordinate. Not in the office organization sense, but in the social hierarchy sense. The ability to look at others as tools for their own goals and motivations.

Some will say this is based on narcissism, or another psychological condition marked with an inflated sense of self-importance and the believe of superiority over others then mixed with a consistent nee for admiration even though they typically have very little empathy for others.

Explains a few, if not all, of the above now doesn’t it?

On a philosophical level this becomes more blunt, and it boils down to “power corrupts” (by Acton and Plato) or “power reveals” (by biographer Robert Caro.) For the former it is explained by power is a toxic substance that changes the person holding it, while the later explains this as not being about power revealing someone but rather taking the mask off of the person that was always there.

In focusing on “power reveals” we arguably get a better understanding on how plenty can be in politics, and for a very very long, time absent all the scandals, investigations, terrible associations, and of course accusations of less than honorable activity if not actual fallout with resignations or legal consequences.

Look at it this way, Plato would say people are only good because they are afraid of being caught in some way where as Caro would say power removes any limitation of showing off who you really are. Add it all up, add in a dash of more modern psychology, and it becomes blatantly obvious as to why the above list happens all too often and with striking consistency.

No matter what you subscribe to, our next conclusion to discuss is we now have more reasoning and motivation to question the character of a candidate far more than any of the common litmus tests offered by Democrats or Republicans. The typical things that most candidates of any party put forth. Good standing in the community, often married with kids, usually of some flavor of religion, in some way successful with academia or business, says the right things looked for by Democrats or Republicans on nationalized issues, that sort of thing.

Under that cloak of perception somewhere in there is the true nature of the person doing the talking, the one susceptible to what psychology and philosophy has been going on and on about since the near inceptions of academia.

Some parting conversation takeaways…

Not a bit of the above conversation is about some attempt to normalize or diminish the accused actions of those named (and not named.) This is not so much about coming to terms with the fallout but more coming to a reality that having a ‘D or ‘R behind the name does not inherently mean what mainstream media suggests of their own or the other guy.

While everyone’s biases tend to come out what ends up consequence is looking at the entire lot as contemptible given the sheer consequences in creating victims, breaking laws and rules of ethical standards, by taking advantage of their own positions in life usually, if not always, at someone else’s expense.

In just a mash of names of people abusing their positions in life… Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Larry Nassar, Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer, Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Vince McMahon, Jeffery Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Andrew (Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor,) Bill Gates, Elon Musk, George Mitchell, Al Franken, Anthony Weiner, Bob Packwood, Mark Foley, Trent Franks, Blake Farenthold, Eric Schneiderman, everyone named above, and so many more!

All have already faced consequences, or might in the future depending on next steps in their respective cases. And again, some of these are still at the stage of accusations only. We have to keep that in mind.

An incredible list though, giving us another conclusion to make here.

The presence of law, the existence of ethical standards and rules for a profession or being in government, and even upbringings from parent to religion to schooling all seems to be no match for the type of person that is subject to what psychology and philosophy talk about. Just as someone determined to commit murder is not necessarily held back by the existence of law on that subject, there are seemingly plenty of people out there willing to harm others in other ways, from their position of authority, and entirely unbound by any standards of any kind.

And speaking of ethics, Congress these days seems entirely uninterested in equal application of their own standards for ethics.

So it comes down to us, as the voter and due diligence.

Going to be tough in that mainstream media may or may not be much help, given how this tends to playout when talking about one of their own facing accusations against talking about someone from opposition politics. Sometimes it may be enough overwhelming accusations across a long enough time that no one in the media can hide it all.

Think John Edwards and his affair and love child entirely ignored until suddenly they could not. Both CNN and The New York Times (as examples) entirely ignored the story but The National Enquirer, of all publications, broke the story. Going further back, you may be able to argue that mainstream media at the time dragged their feet a bit once more started to come out on President Bill Clinton and allegations from Juanita Broaddrick and Gennifer Flowers. Once Clinton admitted at least one of them, under oath, then mainstream media had to take it more seriously.

Irony, this conversation is having even more additions to the list above by talking about mainstream media handling. Let that sink in!

As usual, we will part with the suggestion of skepticism with a slight lean more to who is being accused over the accusers. Does not mean that false accusation does not occur, but given the list above from recent to very current we have no choice but to take people like biographer Robert Caro at little more seriously. More and more masks are coming off, and more people are being shown for who they really are (at least accused.)

And while we are at it, the idea of “#metoo” has some additional work do to.