Corruption, A Definition.

"all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags"

When someone is infected with MRSA, they can get sores. Putrefying sores that ooze nasty-smelling pus. You have to wipe it off with something, or you end up with infected crusty trails of dried-up pus running down your body. Or the dogs will come and lick you clean.

If you are poor, you use rags. They get filthy. Compared to the holiness of God, the best thing you ever did is about as lovely as those "filthy rags." That is corruption.

The American Heritage® Dictionary makes reference to "ruin utterly in character or quality" when defining Corrupt.

A minister at a church I attended told a story about a sheep on his family farm when he was growing up. This boy and his brother were told to walk a fenceline and they would find a dead sheep. They were to clean it off the fence and move the carcass to a refuse pile. They found the sheep had been dead, not for a day or two, but for a week or two. It was swollen and stank, and partially eaten. To extricate it from the barbed wire, they had to get their overalls "filthy." It fell apart a little bit on the way up the hill, maybe. That sheep's body was corrupted.

The Senate is debatably the most elite club in the world, and it is possibly the most powerful elected body on the planet. It is filled with rich people. To be a Senator is to be powerful and prestigious. You have been entrusted by your fellow-citizens with more power over them than almost anyone else. You and one other person represent your entire state. It is an office of high public confidence. And the Governor of Illinois allegedly tried to sell that office to the highest bidder, putting his own personal gain over the good of his State and the entire American Republic. That is a corrupt politician.

Detroit has a bit of a crime problem. I know a man who was a DPD street cop. He was chastised by a superior-ranking policeman for putting "bullet holes" on the Police Report as a description of damage on a car they were called out to see. Bullet holes mean more paperwork. "Did you see anyone shoot that car?" No? Well then, you see, that is "puncture damage." Spent cartridge cases got swept into a storm drain. That is a corrupt policeman.

Corruption is more than something that has gone bad. It has gone all the way bad, and been beaten by a Terrible Stick, then left to rot for a month. Try to remember that when someone mentions corruption in the US political system. It means more than you think it means, and it is apparently rampant.