Americans and the planet they live on have big problems. Why don’t their elected representatives seem to care about solving them?
Finally, the Reason Congress Doesn’t Care About You Even One Little Bit
Americans and the planet they live on have big problems. Why don’t their elected representatives seem to care about solving them?
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Looking at our system, which is clearly the very best one to ever emerge (and the very best one that could ever emerge), I am struck by a single particular constant.
If you turned the whole thing into a single personal relationship, if you made yourself the elected officials and the other person the electorate, the two of you would have broken up a long time ago. Why? The electorate really isn’t worth the effort. They’re kind of stupid. They lack education and have little interest in lengthy discussions about important things. They are easily distracted by MSM and its constant diet of validity. They elevate “family” and “country’ and “home’ to a holy status.
An example of this is seen in the recent kerfuffle about John McCain. Let’s be clear about this: you don’t have to like or dislike John McCain. The reality is that, as a pilot, he dropped bombs in Vietnam and, barring a mathematical miracle, as a result some non-combatants (i.e., civilians, children) died. No one mentions this. I suspect anyone who did would be fired 20 seconds later. And if you go further and ask one of the panelists (assuming they stop chuckling during their “discussions”) how they would feel if McCain had bombed one of their kids into nonexistence, you would be roundly crucified for being inappropriate. “How dare you! John McCain was a great man! Don’t you dare attack his service to our country!” (Sidebar: Has anyone noticed how propagandistic the MSM is toward the military? All the “wounded warrior” stories, all the tearful reunions with children, etc.?)
So that’s the electorate. A bunch of chucklehead simpletons whose conversations are tedious and whose attention spans extend no further than the next meal. And you’re stuck with them. They don’t care what happens to others, just so long as they’ve got 800 cable channels and can afford yet another run to Target to stock up on cheap plastic shit.
Respect them? Oh, hell no. You make nice with them because they let you live rent-free and give you some money. All you’ve got to do is climb into bed once in a while and do a little rumpity-pumpity. And the shower’s right there in the next room to sluice off the filth and corruption.
The only thing I respect about most of these politicians is that they realize most of their electorates aren’t worth anything in the first place.
The sign’s a little blurry. “I sleep outside” ? or “I dump outside” ? meh, either way.
Funny thing how so many of our legislators manage to be multi-millionaires on 174k a year. Why would a multi-millionaire want a job that pays a measly six figures anyway? Is there something they’re not telling us? Perhaps a few perqs we’re unaware of?
But Ted, surely you know that «representative democracy» is all about representing those who pay the bills, i e, campaign contributors. If one can’t get 2½ million donors to repeatedly donate at 27USD a pop, perhaps one can get a few dozen donors to each put 100000USD into the pot. Who’s going to «represent» whom in such a situation ?…
Henri
To Alex:
You’ve given a description of the electorate but only implied the cause, that is: “It’s their own fault for being so uninformed and disinterested.”
This has as much logic as Trayvon Martin being responsible for his assassination and Cuba’s economy inherent inferiority after 60-70 years of strangulation (by myriad and depraved methods) imposed by history’s most powerful, if pathologically insecure,
empire.
That is, you are completely disregarding the ongoing propaganda machine’s intent, and apparent success, in producing an electorate of tribalism with the OTHER 50% of eligible voters choosing to abstain.
One fairly recent example: the “No Child left Behind Act” (co-sponsored by Ted Kennedy –
his prime atrocity among alleged others.)
It’s accurate title would be: “No Child EVER Introduced to Independent thinking …. NOR Kept Anonymous from Military Recruiters” Act.
Falco, falco – don’t you realise that the victim is always responsible for the indignities and atrocities to which he or she has been subjected ? Take chattel slavery, for example ; those Africans had no business leaving their own continent and taking themselves to the Americas – if they were not treatedly kindly there, it was their own damned fault…. 😉
Henri
Henri, Henri,
Did I just have yet another momentary lapse of reason?!?
«Did I just have yet another momentary lapse of reason?!?» What is called in polite (?) parlance a «senior incident» ?… 😉
Henri
alex & falco – you’re both partially correct.
We have all been subjected to brainwashing starting at a early age. That’s not “our” fault, it was done while we were children. Many people are unable to break out of that, not because they don’t care – but because they have no incentive to look behind the curtain*. They’re fat, dumb, and happy.
I, on the other hand, am fat, well-informed, and unhappy. Who’s better off? We’re all going to hell in the same handbasket – but some of us are enjoying the ride more than others.
Each of us are responsible for our own actions, and that includes our own negligence in running this country. We had the opportunity, we *still* have the opportunity & power to change things, but hey, fat & dumb is much less work.
However, we are not responsible for the actions of others. Martin is in no way responsible for Zimmerman’s actions, only his own. The fat, dumb, and happy people of Florida allowed this travesty to happen because they didn’t bother to think through the repercussions. Each of them is partly responsible, (and each will cry ‘no fair’ when they get shot.)
Zimmerman is said to carry around a bag of skittles. I’d love to meet the fat fucktard in real life. “What? Skittles!! I’m in fear for my life!” Boot to the head, followed by a trip to the shoe-shine boy.
*”take the red pill”? I can’t keep up with cinematic philosophical metaphors. 😉
I agree that it isn’t fair to blame the victim. However …
There is, eventually, in any series of events, a point where victimhood isn’t sufficient as a justification, defense, or excuse just by itself.
So when the unions caved when Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers SHOULD have been the moment we all realized we were getting set up to be screwed. But that’s in retrospect, so, okay.
Then we got Bill Clinton and NAFTA and all the rest of his centrist bullshit. And we SHOULD have known then that we were all being sold out by both sides of the aisle. But that’s in retrospect, so, okay.
Then President Cheney got elected by the Supreme Court and 9/11 happened less than a year later. And we SHOULD have known then that we were not being told everything by the media. I don’t mean the whack conspiracy theories, I mean how we were never told what the terrorists’ motivations were. We had no discussion about Israel-Palestine. We had no talk about how the U.S. meddles in the region. It was just “They hate our freedoms” and off we went on a war that IS STILL GOING ON. And we SHOULD have known that the media was in the bag, but that’s in retrospect (barely).
Then we got 2008. Obama bailed out the bankers. Gitmo stayed open. He went after whistleblowers. And we SHOULD have known that the party itself had finished its transformation into a bunch of owned whores.
Then we got to 2016. Hillary and the dnc rigged the primary election, and it came out that they rigged the election. And we SHOULD have known then that the whole system was finally beyond redemption ….
And some of us did. A vote for Hillary was the same as a vote for Trump. Why? Because, if Hillary–Kissinger’s my best friend–had won, we’d be in the same shit storm we are now. Tthe neocons and the multinationals would be doing things a little more subtly, but it would be the same naked grab for power and a giant middle finger at the 99%. Even worse,we’d be stuck in the whole Clintonesque “$12/hr is all we can manage and Obamacare is the gold standard of healthcare” and everyone would have given up in disgust or gone toddling along thinking things were actually great!!!!1!
And that was my breaking point. I could accept people not waking up, even when Obama was hunting whistleblowers, but when Hillary and the dnc actively and deliberately stole the election from Sanders, I stopped being able to excuse the victims. I stopped feeling even a little sympathy. “Gwen, you want to claim you walked into a door again? You know what? I don’t care your husband beats you. Not anymore. Because you will come up with excuses for him until he murders you. And when it happens, don’t expect me to come to the funeral or anything else.”
That’s the point I’ve reached. I’ve known alcoholics, I’ve known people who couldn’t stop spending, I’ve known all sorts of damaged souls, and I’ve tried to help them all. I really have. And it’s a bitter lesson to learn, but some people can’t be saved. And these heading-for-the-cliffers are going to drag all the rest of us with them into the abyss
Sanders should have been president in 2016, but that thieving, obvious, grasping hypocrite Hillary Clinton pulled the most obscene scandal of her sordid career because she couldn’t accept that it isn’t all about her.
Sorry. No more sympathy for people who keep taking a beating with a fake smile on their faces. We’ve got no more chances left.
To Alex,
I remind you that those controlling the jobs and the money use the very same “reasoning” to suggest you and the others in the economic situation you have described for yourself that IT IS YOUR (pl) OWN FAULT.
Re “Sorry. No more sympathy for people who keep taking a beating with a fake smile on their faces.” Does that include Sanders too.
The apparent flood of “progressive” DEM candidates, or, at least, media buzz about it (even by Ted) has been assembled specifically to dilute the voted that went to him in 2016.
“Sorry. No more sympathy ”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t apologize” – Homer Simpson.
😀 🙂 😀
Excellent post. Sorry, but I just couldn’t resist…
(not sorry)
Yes, they do. You’re absolutely right. My point is that there’s a difference–and it’s yuge–between not being able to find a job and thinking/being conditioned to see it as your own fault (i.e., “he beats me because he loves me. If only I didn’t make so many mistakes, he wouldn’t have to use his fists and break my fingers”) and not being able to find a job and knowing/breaking your conditioning to see it as the corruption of the system.
But I still have people sending me advice like “oh, you should go back to school for training. You should widen your search parameters. You should hide your degrees. ,,,”
As I see it, Alex, one can deal with the issue of the complicity of victims in their own victimhood in two ways : one in which one identifies with the victims and asks what we can do to deal with the problem, and the other in which one rails von oben against the stupidity, lack of engagement, and downright laziness of the victims and throws up one’s hands. I can fully understand that at times the latter tends to take over, but I have no doubt which of the two is more effective in bringing about a change in the situation – if, indeed, that is the objective….
Henri
Sorta on topic, my Profound Revelation for the day:
If the people are engaged, democracy works.
If democracy works, the people are happy.
If the people are happy, they have no incentive to be engaged.
Unavoidable conclusion: democracy is doomed to failure.
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” –
Heinlein, Churchill, Throop, et al.