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Political Fucktardery - Meet the New Boss
The circus has left town, the parade’s over. All those roadside signs on their flimsy little frames are slowly disappearing and the phone canvasses have mercifully ceased for another two years. By this time, of course, the midterm elections have come and gone, and have already been analyzed, all to Hannity and back, by pundits of every stripe, and the universal conclusion that has been reached is that “the voters have spoken for change”.
But have they really? On the surface, it would seem that they have – ousting many long-term incumbents from one party and electing their challengers from the other. A couple of independents slipped in under the radar here and there. Many states that have been tried-and-true “Red”, even prior to the “Republican Revolution” of 1994, turned “Blue” last week. However, the press has spent the past six months insisting that this would happen, so why are they acting surprised now? What do they think changed?
Not the two parties, both rotten to the gills with corruption, influence-peddling and lobbyists waiting in the wings to throw money at them like drunken frat boys in a titty bar. Not the issues, which ran the usual gamut of war, money and science-vs-religion (with a very special cameo appearance by Michael J. Fox). Least of all the voters, who didn’t really do anything so revolutionary. They didn’t throw the bums out, they just replaced them with other, numbingly similar bums.
As much as everybody’s trying to sell us on the idea that voting in a Democratic majority constitutes a sea change in the House, the Senate and the national psyche, in the end it really doesn’t mean jack shit. The only mildly remarkable thing about the redistribution of power that resulted from these elections was that it didn’t occur in the LAST election. The Republicans have been spending our great-great-great grandkids’ money on their own agenda since their party gained control of the executive branch in 2001, and if anything it’s a testament to the depth of voter apathy that it took five years for us to collectively make a stab at ending their rampant graft.
And who did the voters replace the Republicans with? Who else? The Democrats, who taxed and spent their way through forty years of power in both legislative branches before being Newted out with their guy at the executive helm. With their ouster from executive power, the Dems became a parody of themselves, embodying everything the Republicans branded them as – goofily PC towards everyone but white Christians, sneaky advocates of legislating from the judicial bench, doves when it came to terrorism. When Dems tried to argue against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Republicans easily bitchslapped them into submission, after which most of them confusedly tried to convey their opposition to the war by voting against increases in spending.
In short – the Dems are wimps.
Will they find their sacks again now that they’re back in control of the legislative branch? If history is any indicator, probably not. Will the voting public judge them harshly enough to vote them out if they don’t make good on their promise to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq? Also not likely.
American voters are victims of their own apathy. We whine that nothing ever changes, but we don’t have the revolutionary spirit to effect real change. Every race in every state offered alternatives to the status quo in the form of other-party candidates; aside from a few here and there, most notably Bernard Sanders’ ascension to the Senate in Vermont, these candidates were summarily ignored by the voters. We sadly embrace a two-party system, and take that for gospel, afraid to “waste” our vote. That’s halfway to a one-party state, people.
Everything that made this country what it is – individual freedom, imagination, bravery and ambition – was lost on the current generation before the current generation was even born, and that, if anything, was the true message of these election results.
