One characteristic that defines politics today is that voters typically spend more time lambasting the opposing party and not enough time carefully assessing the politicians they support. The media and politicians encourage this and why not? It’s classic subterfuge and they wield it to great advantage. Debates and campaign ads concentrate on labeling opponents as incompetent and dangerous, and little, if any, time is spent detailing their own record or specific plans for our future. Fear keeps you tuned into the TV and fear gets the fear mongers elected.
All politicians are essentially the same. They encourage us to fear and attack the other party, while making promises they don’t intend to keep, making claims that are untrue, and abandoning most American citizens once they’re in office. Not surprising, we become important again at reelection time. Regardless of whom controls Washington, we are victims of polarization, gridlock, and, most importantly, special interests, while the poor get poorer, the rich get richer, and the middle class flounders in an economic limbo. And yet, no politician in any party considers themselves accountable. It’s always the other party’s fault. When does this end?
Washington and politics in general will not improve until we begin to hold every elected official to the highest standards of the respective office they occupy in terms of honesty, integrity, objectivity, transparency, fairness, and compassion.
I think most of us would agree that the executive and legislative branches in Washington, D.C. are dysfunctional institutions that no longer serve the interests of the nation regardless of who is in office. So why do we tolerate it? We tolerate it because politicians and media get us preoccupied with how one party is screwing us when, in fact, both major parties are.
We need to think for ourselves and reason for ourselves, rather than run around like trained monkeys conditioned to consume morsels of finely cooked, fear-inducing, biased sound bites from media and politicians,. Winston Churchill’s inspirational words during World War II still ring true today: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
The destructive nature of party politics is apparently not new. This quote from Mark Twain at the turn of the Twentieth Century is evidence of that:
“Look at the tyranny of party -- at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty -- a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes -- and which turns voters into chattels, slaves, rabbits...”
Unless you are one of the richest individuals, corporations, or special interest groups, you essentially don’t influence the course of your own government. You matter to politicians in terms of what they say, particularly at election time, but you don’t matter in terms of what they actually do.
By-and-large, Washington operates as a plutocracy. Yes, we have democratically elected representatives, many rich and powerful in their own right, but an elite group of wealthy individuals, global corporations and well-funded special interest groups are the puppet masters.
We do, however, have the collective power to change that if we stop allowing irrational fear to consume us and cease our preoccupation with denigrating the opposition. Only then will we see the true colors of our own favored politicians and begin to objectively focus on the corrupting influences that plague Washington. Campaign finance would be a good start, but getting most elected officials to endorse it would be tantamount to a vampire providing the wooden stake.
With 2016 rapidly approaching, make it your New Year's resolution to spend less time criticizing the opposition and more time getting to really know your own politicians and holding them accountable for their actions. What more opportune time going into a presidential election year to begin changing Washington for the better?
