Alot of people ‘hate politics’. It’s understandable, it’s gross. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is real! Between the broken promises, the fake Vaseline smiles and handshakes, the bickering and backstabbing, politics is a bloodsport akin to a pitbull fight, a fight to the death that leaves destruction in its wake. It’s what the Democrats are doing with their craziness on Impeachment. It’s what they did to Kavanaugh before that, and Mueller before that. Power – they lost it, and they want it back. And the Republicans do the same thing back to them and it never seems to stop. Government gets bigger and bigger,’ the people’ get smaller and smaller and at a certain point they stop fighting because they think they don’t matter. And in some ways they don’t.
Politicians make promises on the campaign trail that they either never intend to or know they can’t keep, and even when they break them, they tend to get re-elected anyway. How many Republicans, for instance, campaigned on defunding Planned Parenthood and getting rid of Obamacare, and have kept their jobs even though they’ve done nothing about it? Why? Because the incumbency rate for politicians is about 92%. And even if you lose your election, just through the process of running for office, you meet and have ingratiated yourself to the wealthiest and most well-connected people in politics and business, and can always lean on your status as having been this elected official or that. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. And D.C. is the worst!
Washington is like the political type of ‘Deliverance’ – an incestuous clan of self-important free-loading ‘elites’ who couldn’t turn a screw if they had to, but have degrees from all of the ‘Ivy League’ schools and are well-connected. They do very well – all at taxpayer’s expense.
I was at a political event last weekend which to me encapsulated the vulgarity of politics. I do work for my county party, which is the extent of my ‘influence’, but I’m good friends with the ‘top guy’, so it gives me a slight bit of ‘juice’, for at the very least, some of the officials know me through that affiliation. Without getting into too many details, we were having concerns about whether the main speaker would show up, which, if he had not, might have been disastrous. So I motioned to what is effectively the deputy of the state organization, who was talking with someone else (an elected official) to please come over. Not in a ‘stop what you’re doing right now’ manner, but in a ‘when you get a chance’ kind of way. Well, the look he gave me could’ve struck me down in that room. It was a ‘who the f**k are YOU to motion me over?’ look.
He kept talking and I found someone else to try to help resolve the issue at hand. Well, when he got a chance, there was a group of us convened discussing the issue and with a sneer, that guy asked me ‘why were you asking me to come over here?’ Translation – you’re not important, why were you bothering me? I told him what was happening and impatiently he gave his solution to the problem, which was to plan for the speaker not showing up and adjust the other speakers accordingly, and if he did show up, put him on then. He was dismissive of my concern, and the notion that having the main speaker not show up would cause a lot of problems for my friend, who is also his friend! People pay for these events and when the main speakers don’t show, they get mad. It all worked out well in the end, thankfully, but the interaction with him left a bad impression on me.
Politics is not for the faint of heart, or even the righteously earnest, it’s for the person who can withstand the fire and fraud. The person who’s either strong enough to stand their ground and retain their integrity or ambitious enough not to have any.
It’s why you so often see in politicians as you shake their hand the blank stare which seems to say ‘How nice do I have to be to this person? Have they donated to my campaign?’ while they look over your shoulder to find someone ‘important’ to talk to. I get it, you have to glad-hand a lot of people on any campaign, that’s fine, but the basic principles are the same: it takes money and time, both of which are finite resources, and the latter of which, if wasted, restricts the ability to get the former. It’s a business, a racket.
The Founders never intended ‘government’ to be a lifelong ‘career’, it’s why politics in America was actually intended to be localized, so you could get in the face of your elected representatives. Now, people are so busy and frazzled, most don’t even know who their elected officials are, much less have ever met them.
Most people hate politics and rightfully so. It’s why America voted for Trump, he wasn’t a politician. They don’t trust any politicians and think they can’t make a difference anyway. They may vote, but that’s about it. Plus, if they’re working and have a family, they’re tired. So they go about their lives, never feeling in control of the people whose salaries they pay to ‘represent’ them, and who make laws that directly affect them – from taxes to transgender bathrooms – all the while wondering ‘how the hell did things get this way?’ It’s the greatest scheme ever.
Satan himself couldn’t have planned it any better if he tried.