Naked corruption like selling million dollar contracts through a shell charity; or utilizing the full force of federal agencies to directly attack political foes; or refusing to enforce laws because they are inconvenient to political views or persons; or arming terrorists to attack a sovereign nation without a declaration of war under the auspices of defeating terrorists? Like forcing persons to purchase a product under compulsion of “law;” or invalidating the expressed will of the people without regard to Constitutional prohibition; like the seizure of property without legal recourse; like the passage of “regulations” without congressional review that carry the full weight of law and subject persons to loss of property and livelihood? Like the bribery on a scale unimaginable to any state under the guise of Federal aid—money stolen from citizens under threat of force? Oh, not that kind of corruption?
Some of us long for the petty corruption of state legislators...
By naked corruption in Congress, I mean votes and favors being bought for cash, Senators and Reps on a regular cash payroll from large corporations and interests, and with liquor and prostitutes routinely on offer. What you are riled about is government abuse of the citizens, which is another kind of harm. The great modern remedy against that is the development of federal civil rights law, which was primarily (but not exclusively) the work of liberals in the 1960s and after.