No, I think that they are just being more blatant about what they are doing because they’ve always gotten away with it…they feel invincible!!! I was working for the Republican Policy Committee back in 1970–71. All the Republicans in office would meet about once a month to brainstorm on how they were going to keep their jobs. The biggest complaint they were receiving at the time was that they would promise to get a particular bill passed & then they didn’t even support it. Constituents were furious when it was something they believed in!!! I was serving coffee…this was before the women’s lib movement & women were considered too dumb to understand politics. The moderator listened to ALL those brilliant men whining about how they didn’t know how to respond without pissing off their base.The moderator looked up over his cup of coffee & laughed responding “It’s simple. Just tell them that we have to trade favors sometimes. When we don’t get it approved in this bill, it will be in the next bill where we can be assured that everyone will vote for it.” One guy said “What IF it’s NOT in that next bill?” The moderator glared at him & responded “It doesn’t matter…they are too fucking stupid or lazy to follow the trail to know it’s not there.” I could see the light bulb going on over every Republican’s head in that room!!! It seems that they were right, every voter just wants to hear that you are doing what they want you to do, but they don’t want to take the time to verify that you’re doing it!!!
Back then, politicians didn’t screw around with the young girls on their staff because they didn’t need to…they had a hooker on their payroll who stayed available 24/7/365 to do EXACTLY what they wanted or needed. Hookers don’t talk as long as they get PAID!!!
The day Nixon returned from Vietnam, the whole office was loaded onto a bus & taken to the White House. We were lined up along the fence that lead from the helicopter to the White House entrance. Nixon parades down the helicopter steps walking by ALL his smiling supporters, shaking hands with each & EVERY one of us. Then he marches into the White House as we follow his every move. Now, that one looked GREAT on the evening news…throngs of supporters come to the White House to support their President!!! We were FORCED to be there & PAID while shaking his hand!!! After the press left, we were loaded back onto the bus & returned to our office to complete our work.
EVERY politician had their very own journalist assigned to them to make sure they were covered in the MOST favorable light!!! The journalists had to ask permission to publish their articles!!!
Senators send out hundreds of letters a day that they NEVER see. Their Aides dictated them, the clerks typed them & the clerk of the day signed them. We had a machine that had an EXACT copy of their signatures so EVERY piece of correspondence that went out appeared to be individually signed. I’d hear constituents bragging about how they had received a letter personally signed by the politician. I’d recognize the name & I knew that he had received one signed by ME!!! The politician’s secretary was required to be able to forge their signature so close, personal friends would receive a personally signed letter…the secretary did personally sign it!!!
There was one lady who was the wife of a man who went to jail to protet his favorite politician. She came to work at 11:00 & went home at 2:00 & she took a 2 hour lunch EVERY day!!! She was paid $60K which was unheard of at the time. Anytime somebody pissed her off, she’d pull out her little black book that her husband had given her for security & ask them IF they wanted to rephrase their comment. She kept her job until her husband got out of jail!!!