An Inspector General

The problem with any government is that eventually it becomes more corrupt. There's too much money just lying around, too much power, too many debts and too many friendships, for supposedly impartial legislators to resist. And of course we have to consider why anyone would want to become a politician. You have to have enough money to pay for a campaign, and the amounts are such that for any national office the costs are impossible for all those not already rich. So you either have to buy the office yourself, in which case you are remarkably unselfish, or you have to buy it having the prospect in mind of return on investment. The other prospect is that of being "given" money by foundations and companies, who you then owe big-time.

When Harry Truman stepped down from the Presidency, he refused all offers to sit on high-dollar corporate boards or in any way to profit from his presidential office. That hasn't happened since.

I have proposed before that at intervals this country needs an Inspector General, with many of the powers of an emperor, whose job it will be to clean up the government. The death penalty could be used for egregious fraud and corruption. For a brief period, rights to privacy for government officials would be denied and the IG would have unlimited access to information about any public official, elected or appointed. The IG might be elected via internet nationally or appointed by the Supreme Court, kept in office for several years, but only given full powers for a few months. This would give the IG time to collect information prior to his/her period of power. Those in office would know that the IG was watching all the time.

It's important that the IG be limited, and perhaps that the Supreme Court reviewed sentences involving capital punishment, as any essentially unlimited use of power leads over time to corruption. But it's possible for someone to resist that sort of temptation for at least a brief period of time, knowing that they themselves are subject to review by the Courts and by the subsequent IG.

I'd even like to expand the IG's power to include evaluation of corporate presidents who sack retirement funds for the workers, grant themselves a huge retirement, then sell the corporation after it's been looted. Hanging in public might provide a useful and edifying example.