Politics as Usual

Well, after having talked on wonderful theological and philosophical subjects for the past couple of entries, I feel that I am about to sell out my humanity as I prepare to discuss a very recent political episode.

With great fanfare, the American Democratic Party announced that they were in to eliminate the culture of political corruption laid into place by the American Republican Party. Mind you, I think that the Republicans sold out the American populace as well as their own base, so they indeed needed to be cleaned out. However, when a cleanout happens, shouldn’t we perhaps use clean water to scrub out the pipes? Oh no, we Americans are so naïve that we think we can just run to the other career politicians to fill the void. Of course, what we did was replace scum with crud and have ended up all the same.

Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, gave a press conference on a set of legislation in the House and Senate which not only funds the war in Iraq but also is laced with pork projects (no surprise from any – Republican or Democratic – politician). The clincher, however, is a provision to end the Iraq war with a set date, an action which all involved know will have only one of two consequences. On one hand, if the President passes the bill, they will have a definite end to the war, something which they want. However, the more heinous option is if the President vetoes the bill, which is more likely to be the case.

Ms. Pelosi has (in words at the press conference) confirmed that this bill is nothing more than partisan hackery being done to force a veto. In her own words, she said that if President Bush vetoes this bill it will mean: He doesn’t support the soldiers; he doesn’t support veterans whose hospitals need funding; he doesn’t support farmers throughout America. In other words, by the means of a single provision, the pullout date for the Iraq war, the Democratic Party is loading their gunwale for the 2008 election to have commercials about the heartless Republicans who don’t care about the troops, veterans, farmers, etc.

This is but another example that politicians are nothing but a bunch of partisan hacks. The Republicans had their chance to change the way we do business but failed in many ways. Now it is time for the Democrats to screw up in all the same ways. To all of you who thought you were getting a positive change by replacing one set of politicians with another, even if you didn’t agree with their policies, I have one thing to say: “I told you so.”

Our government reflects our culture, a culture which is highly corrupted by crass individualism and relativism. Only by means of a cultural revolution will we have the bedrock necessary to rebuild this wonderful country, flushing out the filth that fills it. Until then, it will be politics as usual.