This comes down to despising government and what it can do. As a result, the only reason to govern is for money and power, because you believe that no actual good can be done.

Thus we have Karl Rove and his bully boys arm twisting to get the State Department to engage in actions benefiting their political allies.

White House aides have conducted at least half a dozen political briefings for the Bush administration’s top diplomats, including a PowerPoint presentation for ambassadors with senior adviser Karl Rove that named Democratic incumbents targeted for defeat in 2008 and a “general political briefing” at the Peace Corps headquarters after the 2002 midterm elections.

The briefings, mostly run by Rove’s deputies at the White House political affairs office, began in early 2001 and included detailed analyses for senior officials of the political landscape surrounding critical congressional and gubernatorial races, according to documents obtained by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The documents show for the first time how the White House sought to ensure that even its appointees involved in foreign policy were kept attuned to the administration’s election goals. Such briefings occurred semi-regularly over the past six years for staffers dealing with domestic policy, White House officials have previously acknowledged.

The point is not that Republicans are universally corrupt, though these days it certainly seems so.

Rather it is that when one comes from a position that sees government as the source of problems, and never solutions, then corruption is closer, since there is no good that comes through government service.