When Fighting Corruption Lets the Monsters Corrupt Us

The New Orleans Ethics Review Board, which checks the finances of elected officials for signs of bribery or corruption, must now submit to financial review themselves.

Not to sound like a Negative Nancy, but this worries me. I know, I know. I'm the only guy in town who thinks this could be a bad idea. To be fair, if you don't know about the supernatural, why wouldn't you think this was a good idea? "Who watches the watchmen" and all of that.

But think on this:

Can a mobster bribe a city official? Yes
Can a banker bribe a city official? Yes
Can a businessman bribe a city official? Yes
Can a vampire bribe a city official? Yes
Can a demon? Yes
Can a ghost? No.

Strip away the ability to bribe, and we are left only with ways to corrupt a city official that mortals can't do.

Can a mobster mind control a city official? No
Can a banker mind control a city official? No
Can a businessman mind control a city official? No
Can a vampire mind control a city official? Yes
Can a demon? Yes
Can a ghost? Yes.

Granted, those mortals who can't mind control can still blackmail and threaten, but those are against the law and can be easily diffused with, say, surveillance equipment or a bold public confession. But what can you do against mind control?

Holding the Ethics Review Board, while on the surface, seems to curb corruption, really it just curbs mortal corruption. In other words, our politicians are still in someone else's pocket, but they are no longer serving mortal, human masters.

This is something I would like to call the Lex Luthor problem. People see him as the villain for bribing police and what not, but he's just trying to keep people from siding with the alien, to keep control of Metropolis in human hands.

Admittedly, this is a bad analogy because Lex Luthor is evil and Superman is good, and bribery and threats and blackmail and extortion are all evil, but now only one side is allowed to cheat, and that ain't our side.

Honestly, I don't know that anything can be done. We need laws like this to limit corruption. I just wish there were a way to limit supernatural corruption too, since I imagine it's the more insidious and evil.

What do you guys think? How can we stop monsters from controlling our elected officials the way the ERB keeps mortal parties from controlling elected officials?

Stay Strange!
-Steve