Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
To Counter Corruption, This Country Elected a Comedian as President
To Counter Corruption, This Country Elected a Comedian as President
Aug 14, 2026 11:13 PM

A television celebrity with no political experience beat out a former first lady to win the presidential election.

No, this isn’t a prediction from the future Trump-Clinton presidential race. This really happened—in Guatemala.

Jimmy Morales, who appeared in edy sketch show for 14 years, recently received 67.4 percent of the vote while Sandra Torres, who divorced her husband while he was still in office, received only 32.6 percent.

Despite the landslide victory, though, the voters aren’t necessarily enthusiastic about Morales (only half of those eligible actually voted). They just like his message: ““Not corrupt, nor a thief.”

Corruption in Guatemala is so rampant that U.N.-sponsored agency was brought in to investigate. The result, as the Wall Street Journal notes, is that corruption charges were brought “against the sitting president, vice president, the heads of the central bank, customs and tax agency, and social security institute, the head of congress, leaders from several political parties, a judge, and a vice presidential candidate. Nearly all are in custody.”

Not much is really known about Morales political views. He’s an evangelical Christian who supports socially conservative views as well as low taxes and limited government. But the country’s citizens were so fed up with corruption that they were willing to take a chance on him simply because he “represented a fresh start and promised to fight against graft.”

Whether Morales is able to make progress against the scourge of corruption will depend on the people of Guatemala. Corruption is often as much of a symptom of society’s values as it is a systematic political problem.As Osvaldo Schenone and Samuell Gregg say in their Acton Institute monograph A Theory of Corruption, “corruption is ultimately derived from the personal choices of individuals to violate the law that, as Saint Paul reminds us, is written on our hearts.”

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Explainer: Theresa May’s ‘New Brexit Deal’
Over the weekend, Theresa May’s cross-party Brexit negotiations collapsed, but their worst ideas live on. At 4 p.m. London time, Prime Minister May unveiled the terms of what she calls a “bold” effort to pass her Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB). She condensed her “new Brexit deal” into 10 points: Our NewBrexitDeal makes a 10-point offer to everyone in Parliament who wants to deliver the result of the referendum: The government will seek to conclude alternative arrangements to replace the backstop...
Acton Line podcast: Lessons on tyranny from Game of Thrones; Poverty and alienation in China
On this episode of Acton Line, Jordan Ballor and Tyler Groenendal break down the last season of Game of Thrones, discussing positive and negative aspects of the show as well as lessons on the role of government and the danger of power. Afterwards, Caroline Roberts speaks with Li Ma, senior fellow at the Henry Institute, about Ma’s book The Chinese Exodus. Ma explains how the current economic system in China drives agricultural workers to the city, setting them on a...
5 questions about the last episode of Game of Thrones
After eight seasons, fans of the series that became a pop culture icon could see the long-awaited final episode on Sunday and finally find out who sat on the Iron Throne. Below are some of my observations about the last episode of Game of Thrones and what one can learn from the final unfolding of the series. 1) Is Daenerys a neoconservative? She was, for many, the heroine of the story until the last episode. Many saw her as an...
The case for capitalism
In preparation for the 2020 presidential elections, democratic candidates are playing by an increasingly progressive rule book: which candidate can promise the most (supposedly) free stuff? Sen. Elizabeth Warren has announced plans to forgive two and four-year college debt by raking in $640 billion from “ultra millionaires.” Sen. Kamala Harris wants e renters to receive billions in tax credits in addition to further Medicare expansion. South Bend, Indiana Mayor, Pete Buttigieg, recently added climate change proposals to his platform, promising...
Rev. Ben Johnson on ‘Donald Trump’s one-front trade war’
In the U.S. edition of The Spectator, Rev. Ben Johnson looks at how President Donald J. Trump eased tariffs on North American and European trade partners so he could ratchet up pressure on China. Yet the Acton Senior Editor offers this caution: “In a trade war, most casualties are self-inflicted.” More: … Trump is poised to impose a 25 percent tariff on virtually all $535 billion of Chinese imports. Varas estimates that the tariffs on Chinese steel will cost US...
Game of Thrones and the judgment of history
This week’s episode of Acton Line features a conversation about Game of Thrones with Tyler Groenendal and me. I won’t try to make the case that the show is salutary viewing. Having read the books and then, with some hesitancy, having watched the show, I can say with some confidence that you can certainly get by (and may well be better off) without consuming (or discerning) this element of popular culture. A great conversation could and should be had about...
Monetary policy: The best case scenario
Note: This is post #122 in a weekly video series on basic economics. Imagine that you’re the Fed and monetary policy is your domain, says Alex Tabarrok. The economy has been doing fine: inflation isn’t too high, GDP is growing at a reasonable rate. But then something happens. Consumer confidence drops. The economy shrinks. What do you do? In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Tabarrok discusses the details of this scenario and how the Fed might respond. He looks...
Alejandro Chafuen: Pioneers of free-market thought
Today is the feast day of St. Bernardine of Siena, a fifteenth-century Franciscan known as the “apostle of Italy” for his preaching and efforts to revive the faith in his time. So many flocked to hear him preach, in fact, that he had to give his sermons outside. Bernardine is also known, though, for his writings and particularly for his systematization of Scholastic economics, which built on the earlier work of St. Anselm, St. Thomas Aquinas, and others and helped...
Rev. Robert Sirico defends priesthood in The Atlantic
Today The Atlantic has published a response essay from Fr. Robert Sirico to James Carroll’s call for the abolition of the priesthood, the magazine’s cover story this month: James Carroll, the author of this month’s Atlantic’s cover story, “Abolish the Priesthood,” is famous in certain Catholic circles for his bitter denunciations of the Church. To the well-documented renunciation of his own priesthood years ago, Carroll now adds the claim that, by its very nature, the Catholic priesthood is inextricably tied...
Adam Smith shows how sympathy makes life more satisfying
The eighteenth century British economist Adam Smith helps with moral challenges, especially in work and employment, says Daniel B. Klein of the American Enterprise Institute. Smith inspires the individual to make a useful and satisfying place for himself in society by contributing. Competence is key, adds Klein, and Smith shows the petence is in sympathy. The individual petence in sympathy to find his own life satisfying. As a moral counselor, Smith helps the worker and the employer: By “sympathy” Smith...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved