Congress Is Dead

With everything going on in the blogsphere, in national politics, in women’s rights, in the Middle East, in Iraq in particular, in the world in general, I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed the last few days. Politics in particular has made me particularly restless the last three or four days. I’ve been debating a personal rebellion, a political mutiny. However, what I’ve come to realize is that it’s hard to defect from a party when you don’t belong to one. You just can’t up and flounce out of the room with a dramatic slam of the door behind you if you weren’t in there in the first place.

The truth is that I haven’t actually subscribed to either of the major political parties since - gosh - since I realized that President George H. W. Bush’s focus was more on foreign affairs and less on domestic policies. Let’s face it. I’ve always kind of been a bit of an isolationist with a belief that we should focus on the needs of American citizens first and once we have our own problems worked out, then we can afford to focus on the rest of the world. I was a registered Republican when the first George took office, but I’d switched Independent by the time Clinton was running.

I voted for Clinton both times and, yes, I liked Clinton. I think he did a lot of good things for this country domestically speaking. He certainly did a lot to reduce the deficit and military spending which wasn’t needed at that time. After all the Cold War was over. I know a lot of Republicans didn’t like him, most of them seem to focus on his womanizing and “the lie” and can’t seem to get past that and really I’m tired of that argument. When people talk about Ronald Reagan, you don’t hear them keep talking about the IranContra Scandal ad nauseum. Most people can recognize that most presidents have done both good and bad in their terms.

I write the above all the while recognizing some sort of hypocricy in myself. I’m sure there are certain people who think I don’t think President George W. Bush has done anything worthwhile in his terms as President. You’d be wrong, of course. Sometimes, I get so frustrated and angry that I forget, but early on I was quite proud of him, proud of my country. In fact, I once told my very liberal father of George W. Bush that it took a smart man to realize he needed to surround himself with smarter people to run the country.

But that was in 2001, not long after 9-11.

The truth is that I voted for George W. Bush in 2000. I didn’t in 2004, but I did in 2000.

I approved of his “No Child Left Behind” plan. Unfortunately like many of his ideas, it has turned into very little more than an empty promise, fool’s gold. History books might truly have seen him as the Education President if he’d actually put some money where his mouth was but with no financial backing, “No Child Left Behind” has become a nusance and a financial nightmare to many schools, school districts and states. Some states are even suing over the whole thing.

On September 11th, 2001, I was devestated with the rest of the country and despite being a long-time pacifist, I raised my fist to the sky toward the Middle East and cried “Go get ‘em!” I hung on every word that came out of President Bush’s mouth. My chest surged with patriotism beneath my little flag pin and I hung red, white, and blue all over my balcony to let Osama Bin Ladin know that I wasn’t afraid, that he hadn’t beaten us.

And when we sent troups off to Afghanistan, I cheered them on. Despite, as I said, being a long time believer in peace.

And I’ll tell you why.

I do believe that you can turn your cheek only so many times before you have to stand up for yourself. What happened on September 11th was beyond imaginable. It was an attack on American soil and thousands of innocent Americans were murdered. To me, that line had been crossed. Something needed to be done.

I’ve never said that going to Afghanistan was wrong. I’ve always believed in that action.

I became alarmed when Congress passed the Patriot Act with barely a whimper. I think in fact that may be the day that Congress died. Since then they’ve done nothing but cater to the White House with the Democrats occassionally making a lot of useless noise meant to keep up appearances, but for the most part, it’s all just a show to keep those of us out here in the real world distracted and entertained.
I lost my faith with Bush, however, when the Bush administration began talking about Iraq and Saddam Hussein. My father pointed out that the only way for Bush to keep the kind of power he’d acquired was to find a new enemy since the war in Afghanistan was all but over.

But it wasn’t. It still isn’t, if anyone’s bothered to check. We’re still fighting the Taliban over there and they’re regaining ground, but you almost never hear about that anymore.

I never bought into the WMD thing and I don’t want to hear the theories that he shipped them to Syria because those are just theories just like there’s no evidence that he’d restarted his nuclear program. I do have a problem with a President who keeps changing his story on why it is that we invaded this country that obviously wasn’t really an immediate threat or a terrorist breading ground. I have a problem with a President who won’t admit that maybe he might have made a mistake or maybe he misunderstood or maybe he lied.

I have a problem with a President who’s administration keeps changing their story on a number of fronts and seems overly defensive and mysterious and paranoid. It’s my experience that paranoid, mysterious, and defensive government groups have something sorted to hide. I have a real problem with a President who believes he’s above the law and flaunts it publically. Does he really think that makes us look good in front of the terrorists?

So, if I’ve lost faith in the Republicans, that leaves the Democrats, who you’d think I’d be more politically aligned with anyway…except I don’t particularly like any of them either at the moment. Well, there’s Senator Russ Feingold, though I suspect he’s commiting political suicide even as I type.

The truth is that there’s really no one in the national arena worth their weight in pee anymore. They’re all going through the motions just trying to get as much money, attention, and free stuff as they can. They’re conning each other and the public. I think even they don’t believe the bullshit they spew anymore. I’m so tired of their self-righteous, pompous, phoniness. I’m tired of calling and volunteering and donating and giving my all when they’re going to do what they want anyway. When is my voice going to count in Washington?

And so you see, I’ve been quietly reflecting the last few days about what I can do. I mean, the last few years, I’ve been signing petitions calling for investigations into the suspicious activities of this administration and fed up with that and desperate, I finally jumped on the “impeach” and “censure” bandwagons because I began to feel that at least using extreme words and actions might get attention, and maybe that’s really all that will get anyone’s attention anymore, but I really don’t think anything will come out of any of it — though I do encourage you to still try if you think it will. I just think that Congress as it is now is a dead entity, useless, and I don’t think it’s going to matter who we elect in 2006 or 2008; until we get some new blood into the White House and Congress, nothing is going to change.

Who knows, maybe my wish will come true and out of the ashes of Congress, a third party will rise and it’ll be strong with the power and ear of the people. Maybe it’s time.

tags: Congress, George W. Bush, Russ Feingold, politics, Bill Clinton, 9/11, Democrats, Republicans, Iraq, Saddam Hussein, Afghanistan

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