The Political Culture of Washington DC

Allow me to vent about the political culture of Washington, DC.

This goes out to all of the frustrated party goers regardless of what side of the room you sit on. I don't who you are or whether you are affiliate with a particular view or not, I am starting to get the feeling that the frustration with DC is now very universal. Here is what I am irked at for the moment.

I have, for the last year, observed too many scenarios where some revelation of government favoritism or gift-giving happens and rather than people getting up-in-arms about it, it is dismissed out of hand as a “well, everyone knows about that” scenario.

I recall when Bush became a social outcast for inviting certain preferential friends to the party and during the current presidency there have been more early preferential appointments and treatments than we have seen in recent history. If you ask people, “Hey, do you remember when Bush was all evil for doing this?” the response you get is, “Everyone knows that the White House has the power to make those kind of decisions and appointments.” What was evil is now expected and a historical fact.

Next up, spending. Specifically, pork spending. During the election everyone agreed, appending sidebar budget allocations (pork) for pet projects, worthy or ludicrous, was an evil practice that needed to end. With the healthcare bill we have become painfully aware of how paying our politicians isn't enough... we have to bribe them with special benefits to their constituents (remember: constituents, democrat or republican, means companies who employ people in their voting district... not voters). Doing the right thing or doing the wrong thing isn't about making good or bad choices but rather naming the right prices to enlist the correct number of votes. Is your evil-meter pegged yet? We were informed that good-bad-or-ugly, special deals is how this stuff works. We heard that little tidbit directly from the mouth of our president himself.

Next up, philanthropic budget abuse. Whether you are talking about democrats using tax-payer funded secret service crews to drive them to weekends with secret lovers and using tax payer dollars to hide that from their wives, or donations to the republican party that end up paying for nights out on the town at strip clubs in California, we are told that this is just the cost of doing business. I think this is ridiculous and I don't honestly want to pay for it anymore.

Once upon a time I recall hearing someone say that soldiers defend American's freedom. Whether they advocate and support the crazy American opinions or lifestyles, the soldier defends the rights of American's to be free and ridiculous, God bless America! Lets make this idea more personal, “A soldier dies for the right to defend a politicians rampant disregard for taxpayer investment in our country, and that politicians right to advocate for and spend that tax money however ridiculously they see fit.” Ahhh.... no! Double no! I am not up for that and I am getting tired of it.

Now, we are told by the White House how Goldman Sachs is evil. Specifically, everyone is talking about it and Saturday Night Live even jokes about how ridiculous the bailouts have been in the light of how evil that group has behaved. Out crawls the partisan politics! Those darned Republicans, in bed with banks and deregulation! Everyone knows that Republicans are evil because they are all about defending the wealthy and screwing over the little guy right? And then out come more facts: Ends up the Democrats have been financially in in the lead by quite a bit with regard to accepting hand-outs from Goldman Sachs over the years. And not by a little... by a lot! And who got the most “lover money”... Barack Obama himself!? Wait one minute!? I thought the White House was nearly leading the “regulate these evil guys” charge right now!? So, someone quickly (please) tell me that this is also business as usual. That we can get behind a president that accepts $6,000 short of $1 million from Goldman Sachs, then hands $1 billion in tax payer funded bailouts and then is supposed to impress us when they turn around, point at Goldman Sachs and yell, “Evil!” And now I've read that the regulation proposals make things worse rather than better!?

You know what, I don't think these guys know what evil is! I think they are waste deep in unapologetic human frailty and if we could see every back-ally deal, every Republican with a wide stance accosting strangers for sex in public bathrooms, every Democrat celebrating their birthday having tickle-fights with interns and “snorkeling” Navy Sailors, every Supreme court judge, Democrat or Republican, wearing their constitutional neglect on their sleeve, I think we would probably all scream “Foul!” and kick these people out on their butts without so much as a second glance. I don't think they know what evil is... simply because they are too close to it to recognize it. They have played politically correct with the terminology of reality and in the end blurred even the concept of right and wrong into pea soup. And before you are too quick to agree with blurring the lines between right and wrong, comprehend the fact that we spent $28 billion on the Department of Justice last year. Not a block away from Congress we invested $28 billion into advocating for justice and Congress acts like a 1930s Mobster donating to some charity so they can feel good about abusing everyone else for the next year! How can they know what justice is if they can't be bothered to comprehend right from wrong!?

When I was little, there was a joke that went like this... “Do you want to lose 10 pounds of ugly fat? Well, chop off your head!” I am starting to feel like that isn't a joke anymore.

So, if anyone in Congress is listening, I am starting to feel like the solution to the Ugly Fat that is America won't be solved by financing your “brilliance”, rather it will be better served by Americans voting to chop off our ugly head!

(disclaimer: This is in no way a veiled effort to communicate or advocate for violence. I am not some socialist advocating for a proletarian uprising in an effort to overthrow the establishment. I believe in the American form of government. I just happen to believe that we may need to reboot it. While experience in most situations leads to efficiency, in the case of Congress, experience seems to lead to underhanded efficiency in morally objectionable political self-service. We may be arriving at a moment in our American history where we must find and enlist the services of American politicians who have no experience, hence do not know how to abuse the political system for personal gain. We need true servants of the people. I would rather Congress lock horns in a heated debate of contrary opinions than to watch Congress pretend to hold passionate positions that are simply for sale to the highest political bidder.)