As has been pointed out since the founding of this country, we either take money out of politics and elections, or it all falls to the inevitable revolution of the rich and greedy caste.
And yes, I do think we are in a falling empire, there are too many of the uncaring, super rich looting the treasury with huge tax cuts to ever pay our bills, so that means we are in fact BANKRUPT.

Think Putin is afraid of the Russian legal system? He owns it, lock, stock and political class.
While I think many in the Democratic Party here in America are fine human beings, they are trying to be lawmakers in a land run by gangsters, and even if the midterms go their way...Trump. He can get us into a shooting war at any minute, to distract from his grifting ways.

It is the inevitable rise of the gangster caste when you elect someone like Al Capone to run your government, then the real law is outlawed so the outlaws can steal at will. We are living in a falling empire, run as the Russian empire is run, for their own gangsters, the billionaire oligarchs.

Oh hell, I should hang out a shingle and give financial and legal advice. I am not a billion dollars in debt, and have no real idea how the markets work, other than to be absolutely certain the game is rigged, no matter what game, by this time the super rich have it all under their control to fleece the poor and the powerless.
These days I often hear the songs of the "Music Man" rambling around in my head as I see the corruption spread. The "hero" was a con man who sold lies and musical instruments...

This country of ours has so many needs, so many old and disabled people struggling to get through their days, but Trump and his gang are focused on grabbing all the grift and bribes they can before the midterms probably bring in the cops, or the Democratic investigations.

And soon, one expects, the greatest con of them all will take place, Trump will resign so that his VP at the time can automatically rise to the Presidency and as the Republican Party hack did for Nixon, pardon Trump for each and every of his unlawful grifts and grabs, including war crimes that involved murder...from the high seas to Iranian leaders.
No one is in charge of this country, but there are gangsters out there grabbing for everything that isn't nailed down, as happens in a falling empire.