The Root of Washington’s Ills

Thanks largely to thousands of lobbyists, Washington
 has become the wealthiest city in the nation. 
Photo by by Rollinho, Flickr Creative License

In 1990, Ramsay MacMullen, a distinguished Yale historian of Rome, published a book that took on one of the central questions of his field: Why did the greatest empire in the history of the world collapse in the 5th century? The root cause, he explained, was political corruption, which had become systemic in the late Roman Empire. What was once immoral became accepted as standard practice, and what was once illegal was celebrated as the new normal. Many decades from now, a historian looking at where America lost its way could use “This Town” as a primary source.
An excellent opinion piece by Fareed Zakaria in Washington Post.