I'm obviously failing once again to quit the discussion...

> I'm also not interested in having a discussion with someone who thinks that having Multiple Philosophy Degrees actually matters.

I mentioned them only in response to one claim of yours, already about twenty levels deep into the debate:

> Have you considered the possibility that you don't read very carefully?

Otherwise, I didn't try to cite them to support any other point of mine.

> necessary for anyone who wants to advance in politics under our current system

Why should we as citizens care about the advancement of individual politicians? Their job is supposed to be to represent us. If the winners of elections cater to their donors rather than to their constituents, if the representatives, at the behest of their donors, purposely prevent progress that would help the majority of people, then what good is winning?

My argument was that it's the moral corruption of the political parties, especially their leaders, that makes it necessary for party officials to be corrupt, e.g., "if you want to be part of one of the two major parties, who are already corrupted by money, you've got to play along with the team, join the perverse game. Otherwise they'll crush you like a bug. Perhaps you could make some excuses for the minor party politicians, but there are no excuses for the leaders of the parties. They're the ringleaders of the whole corrupt operation." There doesn't even appear to be a desire among most politicians to change this sad situation. Also: "I don't actually think that money in politics corrupts politicians as much as politics appeals to the corruptible, i.e., the type of ladder-climber that I mentioned. It's possible to be courageous (i.e., not corrupt) in politics, as long as you care more about your principles than you do about election and especially reelection."

Let me make a little analogy. Instead of talking about the US government, let's talk about the government of a totalitarian country. Take your pick: China, Russia, North Korea, etc. It's "simply a fact", as you say, that in order to advance to a high position in the government of such a country, it's necessary for a politician to be terrible, ruthless, evil, even murderous. We can admit that as a fact. But this terrible fact doesn't excuse the behavior. Not in the least. It's still inherently wrong to be terrible, ruthless, evil, murderous. There's simply no excuse. A moral person would play no role in that villainy. And I would say the same thing about corruption in US politics.

I'm not trying to argue that you shouldn't vote for Biden, or even that you shouldn't donate to him, but at least we should call a spade a spade. It's simply admitting the truth, which is much more important than politics IMO. The truth only seems to come out of his lips when talking to his donors, promising "Nothing fundamentally would change" if he was elected. And he kept that promise! https://www.salon.com/2019/06/19/joe-biden-to-rich-donors-no... This is and always has been who Biden is, fundamentally. You seem to want to defend him as a victim of "necessity", whereas I see him merely as an ambitious, corrupt ladder-climber with no real principles, and one of the worst of all the Democratic candidates in 2020. It wasn't actually necessary for Biden to run, and remember that he was forced to drop out of a previous Presidential run because of his dishonesty.