Our government is in a sad state right now.

Sure you've heard it all before, and whether you blame it on Republicans or Democrats, you can't deny the fact that the stink of corruption is emanating heavily from our state and federal government buildings.

The most recent incident comes from Philadelphia. The FBI recently raided the homes of Rep. Curt Weldon's daughter and a friend "as it investigates whether the congressman improperly helped the pair win lobbying and consulting contracts," according to a CNN article.

Weldon is calling the investigation politically motivated and said there is no truth to the matter.

Of course it is only an allegation at the moment, but it still does nothing to increase confidence in our government.

The same goes for the recent scandal from Florida where former Rep. Mark Foley allegedly made advances toward male pages when he should have been concerned about representing his constituents.

What makes the situation even worse is there is a very real possibility that House Speaker Dennis Hastert knew about the advances and did nothing.

Now obviously there are hundreds of politicians who aren't corrupt, but, unfortunately, they don't make the news.

Our nation, instead, is only exposed to the scum that rises to the top of the proverbial politician mix.

And it's this scum that shatters our confidence in our politicians.

If we can't trust them, whom can we trust?

What's worse is that it creates a cycle that forebodes nothing good for our country. While corruption in politics has been happening since we became a nation, it seems all the more prevalent in recent years.

Yeah, Nixon was breaking into hotel rooms decades ago, but has corruption ever been in the public eye as much as it has been over the last decade? President Clinton was two-timing Hillary and lying to us when we were in middle school. Then came the Whitewater controversy.

Unfortunately we've grown up in a world where political corruption has been in the public eye like it never has before.

Woodward and Bernstein started a trend where news media holds the government responsible for its action.

Now news organizations actively search out political corruption, which is great because it holds our leaders responsible.

But it also seems like this trend has led our generation to not trust our government, which may be the reason we are possibly the most apathetic generation, in terms of voting, the United States has ever seen.

Just like our politicians aren't listening to their conscience, we're not listening to ours.

If our current politicians are corrupt, let's make sure we vote in politicians who aren't.

It's our civic duty to hold our leaders accountable for their actions.

There's an election coming up on Nov. 7, and we can only hold our leaders accountable if we are the ones who vote them into office.