It’s interesting how things turned out. The UK remains a nominally theocratic Christian state, yet hardly anyone goes to church, and the slightest whiff of jebus talk would spell instant death for any (mainland) political campaign; but there is a widespread consensus on what you could loosely call protestant ethics, so that even right-wingers mostly concede (at least on paper) that it is wrong to deny health care to the poor, or to kill as a punishment.
In the US, with its nominally radical secularism, politicians are celebrated for being religious fanatics, and (the loud version of) Christianity is a cult for bloodthirsty Mammon-worshipping hatemongers.
IDK if there’s any lesson in that. I guess theocracy has come to work as a vaccine against politicised religion in the UK, but OTOH there was quite a long period of heretic-burning before we got to that point. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Why use fines? This is what jails are for. Spending 30-90 days in jail every time an elected official betrays the community;s trust will probably curb the behavior faster than having the tax payers pay for fines caused by an out of control official. It just feels like people can do wrong, in the face of multiple warnings, yet suffer no direct consequences for their actions. (I feel a bit the same with the recent PG&E bankruptcy, somehow I’m paying for some one else’s F-ups.)
And no matter which pays which, the money is coming from the constituents taxes. Instead of, say, using that money to pay Kentucky teachers better salaries.
