Before you go bitching about it, yes, I know I said cereal rapist. I'm just chock full of double entendre. Ha. Without further adieu, I give you yet another aspect of why I think our government should be wiped clean and replaced.
I have preached time and time again about apathy. We all do it. It doesnt make it right, but we still do it. In context, we elect mostly the same people to mostly the same offices, year after year. They smile, bullshit us a little(or a lot) and the whole time the better part of them are taking money and perks from special interest groups. Oil and gas in your state? You can pretty much count on some or all levels of your state and federal government accepting money to allow them what they want to extract their liquid money. The same goes for every other industry, whether it be big pharma, big oil, big industry or any other infinitely wealthy organization.
What do we do? We keep letting them stick it to us until it affects something we care about. I think it can be changed, but it will take more than just me to do it. How many times do the oil companies have to destroy your local hunting area or muck up your hiking trail or picnic area? How many more doctors and hospitals will push drugs that are worse than the disease? Yeah, I know they arent politicos, but it's the same thing. I'm sure that somehow there are a bunch of politicians being paid off by the drug companies for something. How many industries pay politicians for allowing them to further some aspect of their business in a way that is a little "off the books"? Displace some people? Sure. Wait, lets send all the heavy manufacturing to Pago-Pago because those little brown bastards will work for 32 cents an hour. We can shutter the factory and have a multi- million dollar tax break as well. What's that senator? Your limo is a little cramped? Well, we'll just have a nice new Bentley waiting for you after you sign the bill. Yes, yes senator, we(OOOOOIIIIIILLLLLLLL) will give you free gas in the form of a "campaign contribution". How much? Welllll, how much do you need senator?
....And on and on. You remember the line from Clueless? " You can only hear that Richard Gere-Gerbil story so many times and it's got to be true" That's how I feel about politicians. I'm willing to bet that if you have suspicions that one of them's crooked, then they probably are. Occasionally one of them gets too ballsy and gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar and one foot on the throat of some poor constituent. They throw him under the bus and people feel a little better about "the awful, crooked politician" getting caught and punished. Oh. I mean, losing his position. They never really get punished, unless other rich people get shanked. BERNIE MADOFF. Pissed off a bunch of other rich freakers and now his poor wife had to give up her personal possessions . Yes, again, he's not a politician, but again, it's the same crap.
How much do you think Rob Blogojavich( frick, I know I spelled it wrong) would have really gotten if he'd sold Obama's seat? If the big "O" hadnt been elected president, say....he'd just quit and went into some private sector job, would anything have been done? I doubt it. No fame, no gain.
Let's do Mr. Cheney now. Haliburton. 'nuff said.
No, I feel the need to say " some of the crookedest mother effers that ever walked the planet. " For the last what....30 or 40 years?
The biggest thing I can think to do legally is "Term limits". In one way, some of the honest politicians.....Had to stop and snicker/snort there, would suffer. Their experience and agendas that may have benefitted their constituents would either have to be expedited or wait until a later term was earned. They should have to at least sit out 1 term and have a public evaluation of work accomplished for their current term. We're Americans Dammit! We could figure out some rational way to hold them accountable for what they do during their tenure and either allow or disallow them from further office.
In the end, our apathy always seems to win out. We shrug our collective shoulders, sigh and utter the completely idiotic phrase " Oh well, what can we do?". How dumb. It's no wonder the rest of the world reviles us. What's my favorite historic phrase kiddies? That's right, Mr. Jefferson. No, not George(as in George and Weezy). Mr Thomas J. Something about " The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots." I'm not saying that we should all go out and wax your local congressman. Yet. Change is always painful and as spoiled Americans, we detest anything difficult or things that may affect us personally. Sacrifice is a necessity for attaining greatness. A couple million men that died about 60 years ago will attest to that. We gained great respect and attained some fabulous ideals and morals (albeit for only about 20 years) but we still did it. Many things carried over until the last decade or so. Unfortunately, when the dollar became more important than life and liberty and the pursuit of 2.5 kids a wife and home, we temporarily felt great buying cheap goods from big corporations at ridiculously low prices. We traded our souls for a $400 home computer and a closet full of clothes from bangladesh. Oh and let's not forget your service representative Veejay, I mean BOB, who directs your credit/phone/finances from somewhere in New Delhi.
Do some actual research. Check out the people running locally and see how many people that actually know them would recommend them. Do a little research, if only on the net, about anything that your Staties or Federals have done in their political and business life. See if they have a questionable past from an old job or lower office. We have the greatest system in place that the world has ever known. We make little use of it. I fear it will take a monumental disaster to make us take notice and actually care. 911 was a horrible tragedy that should have been averted, but I believe that it will take an event that would make it look like a bad sunburn to make people take a hand in their own futures.
Take heart my fellow Americans. Nothing lasts forever. Ice cream cake, bull markets, democracies....but hey! Tomorrow's another Day!
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