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I Loathe Politicians

Yes, I said loathe. I know, a bit strong, but they irk me so much and fire up such righteous indignation, the word does justice to the passion I feel towards them. Hypocrites are always repugnant, but when they hold substantial power over other people's lives and are hypocritical in the exercise of that power, they deserve nothing less than our absolute disdain.

Politicians are only human, I understand, that is why the founding fathers attempted to establish a system of government that made the ruled relatively stronger than the rulers (slaves excepted). The truth is that humans cannot be trusted with power: they never have had, nor never will have the quality of character, particularly altruistic self-control, that makes them capable of exercising it righteously. Humans with power always, eventually devolve into self-deluded oppressors, thieves, and nepotistic despots, incapable of hearing correction or being righted.

Limitation is the best way of dealing with the necessity of human government. Limit time in office, limit power in office, limit the ability of office holders to get their hands into the pockets of the masses. It is criminal that anyone serves in any elected office anywhere in this land for more than 10 years, 6 is more than enough imho. Any jobs that require skills that would make that time limit ill-conceived should be hired positions, not elected ones.

At least we do have the Bill of Rights, which goes a long way toward protecting us from the abusive or arbitrary use of political power against us, but it doesn't go far enough. Families are not protected at all, and everyday in this country, parents are subject to the dismemberment of their families without due process of law. The family is much more important to the health of our society than is the government, yet in our day, government has achieved deferential treatment over the family in our legal system! The founding fathers never saw such an assault coming in their wildest dreams. They did see that property was in jeopardy and put protections against confiscation in place, at least they thought they did, but the SCOTUS blew that out of the water a few years ago.

The income tax has been a disaster to privacy, due process, and property protections. It opened the floodgates, and the politicians have been rolling over the people ever since it was enacted. Before the government takes all our ability to be self-sufficient away, and turns us into beholding beggars, Oliver-like, pleading, "please sir, may I have some more?" we need to cut their purse strings. What penny of yours do you think a politician could spend better than you?

Why should any governmental unit in this country spend one dime that isn't a direct payment for a good or service? Yet, Uncle Sam has morphed into a one-stop procurer for everything he says the average American needs-- he's our insurer, banker, educator, retirement planner, even our baby-sitter. He's more than half-way to becoming our family doctor. And what do we get for the money the government steals from us in order to turn around and pay for those services? How about a highly inflated cost for everything, rife with inefficiency and waste. For every dollar taken from us, we are provided, maybe, a buck and a quarter worth of services at retail which only has a value of perhaps a dime wholesale (that's rant, not statistic!). The government takes our cash and saddles us with its debt and a diminished value for our money. Would Yankee Doodle ever have taken that ride? Not likely. Governmental third party payments are killing us, and will end up enslaving our children, I have no doubt.

Some may say that the rich have unfair advantages and we need the government to take on these roles in order to level the playing field for the not so rich masses. I do think it's ridiculous that a CEO can make $15 million whereas a line worker in his or her business might make $25,000. However, if we want government to execute economic justice, then why not just make the business in question pay the CEO less and the line workers more. Why should the government, mafia like, use economic disparity as an excuse to crowd itself into the picture and wet its beak? We would all do better if we had the money ourselves in the first place, rather than depending on catching a few drops boiling over the government's pot in the form of third party payments.

Biblically, government's job is to bear the sword and punish the wrongdoer. Alas, politicians have fallen asleep at the wheel, or at least opted for a different job description. The result is that what government should do and do well, is getting done poorly at best, and what government shouldn't do, is being done hog wild, at about the level that swine could. Party affiliation does not seem to matter-- Republicans care about nothing but giving some country club crony a shot at making millions at someone else's expense; Democrats are incoherent populists that haven't had a good idea in at least 100 years. Let any other party be in power as long as either of them has, and we'd get about the same result.

In a perfect world, Jesus would rule. In this one, flawed humans have to. With that in mind, don't get all excited over rhetoric and promises. Don't lose sleep over the campaigns. Until we, as Americans, get wise and seriously limit our government, politics will be remain a carnival. I suppose that it's fitting that our big choice this year is whether to put a Macy's balloon figure or a decrepit relic in charge. May either of them serve but one term.