Beware of Parties and Politicians

If George Washington or Thomas Jefferson were alive today they would be horrified.

Take your pick at what they would horrified about: a colossal government; a government that steals from its citizens in the form of income taxes; lifetime politicians; a government that doesn’t protect our rights; politicians that lie to us constantly; politicians that promote a global agenda rather than looking out for their own citizens; politicians that bribe voters with taxpayer money; a government that supports elite corporations; politicians that accept bribes from corporate executives and leaders of foreign countries; a government that continues to devalue fiat money backed by nothing but a shallow promise; politicians that play one group against another to shift focus from the real issues.

Is anything missing from that list?

If Washington or Jefferson were alive, both would say that the US government wasn’t intended to be what it has become; a perpetual bickering match that sounds more like a husband-wife relationship who’ve been married far too long.

Partisan politics and agendas have degraded any kind of discussion on issues. And made-up narratives are used to kill the reputations of non-believers. Facts and debate don’t matter any more while extreme emotions and violence take precedent. The result is that our political institutions have no credibility – in the eyes of American citizens and the eyes of the world.

 The new bickering match between the incoming and outgoing powers is the wiretapping, or surveillance, of Trump Tower. There is no definitive proof yet, but the accusations and denials degrade our government officials even more. News reports are mincing words, that it wasn’t wiretapping, but rather surveillance. It’s a shame that it’s even an issue. This is what happens when the sham we call political parties won’t work together. It just goes to show that republicans and democrats aren’t interested in solving America’s problems; they are only interested in gaining and holding power.

 And rather than debate the issues that are important, our leaders undermine each other by name calling. The Trump cabinet was recently referred to as a bunch of “scumbags’’ by one politician. Isn’t this how little boys and girls argue at recess?

 It’s scary what the desire for power will do to a person; and what that person will do to keep it. Washington himself knew, in a democracy like ours, that power had to be fleeting. No leader could ever hold it for too long a time. That was why he served his two terms and retired back to Mt. Vernon. If only today’s politicians were as dignified.

Now we have lifetime politicians who know how to play the system, make themselves rich by voting on bills that benefit corporations or some other special interest group instead of representing their constituents.

As voters, we’re to blame for the nonsense. We vote for the “lesser of two evils’’ every two or four years. We say this politician or that one needs to go, but it usually applies to the politicians of other districts while we keep voting for the same ones in our own district. What does this do? It encourages hacks to run for office because of our carelessness; and it creates a void in leadership.

It’s like the chicken and egg argument. Did Americans become apathetic before or after the quest our politicians and parties had for complete power? George Washington warned us to be cautious of political parties over 200 years ago:

 “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.’’