The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
The District of Columbia is a capital city of 57 square miles surrounded by reality, with an insatiable quest for power, money and control. It hosts the most narrow-minded occupation globally; party politics, where partisan choices are made from contempt for the other side.
In Washington, truth is infinitely malleable in service to ideology, and democracy is only valuable if it serves a political end. It is in our nation’s capital where the elected are accomplished liars without consequences. And all of this is driven by the indelible personal objective of “What’s in it for me?!” The battle cry of the privileged federal politician.
You say “it’s not my elected official.” That’s the problem. But, indeed, it is. These politicos plunge us further into a liability with their ruthless personal mandates to secure individual influence. Washington is a “swinging gate” kind of town where the fervor of money swings both ways in perpetuity.
Craven, raw power is the big super-game that twists and bends elected folk who come to play bloodsport events at the Capitol. These members of Congress and senators possess their theory of relativity. If you can’t convince the people, confuse them.
“The Democrats have their eye on a dime and the Republicans on a dollar,” bluntly stated by Will Rogers years ago.
Virtue has never been as respectable as money in our nation’s capital. According to Mark Twain, “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctively native American criminal class except Congress. Atrophy is a legislator’s reward for long political service and a substantially higher net worth end game.
Today, the adverse consumer alliance of business, religion, health-care, immigration, systematic voter suppression, racism and corruption with dark money in the campaign finance system polarizes Congress, decays progress and reduces our quality of life. These issues must be acted on now, not suppressed, to get through another election cycle. Our spineless Congress prefers not to confront looming concerns because it is better for their next reelection campaign not to stand for something today.
In Congress today, truth is more of a stranger than fiction. A sales marketing mentality dominates fetid political dialogue. It proves so cynical it invites contempt and disbelief of the proficient D.C. spinners and flippers.
These elected participants have even politicized science, tossing pure knowledge around like beach balls. And lawmakers’ governance has facilitated the media’s consolidation into pocketed influence to suit their need for information distribution producing bogus news to their liking.
This nation was not built by men and women who relied on somebody else to care for them. It was built by people who relied on themselves, who took responsibility to shape their own lives with confidence in themselves. We want solutions, not distrust, diversion, and hate. People favor common sense, honesty and mutual decency. The people need leaders in both parties that care more about the country than their gain.
Our legislative officials in both chambers believe that a voter isn’t essential any longer. In that case, they should try doing without us for a period of one election. Moral leadership can improve our country, and immoral leadership will debase it. Democracy is a tenuous entity, and it must not be allowed to fail. Adlai Stevenson stated, “As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers, and the ruled, the law-givers, and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end.”
