I can’t believe it. As far as I can tell, this is a dream. There’s no way that less than 24 hours after the Democrats won back the Congress, the Secretary of Defense is gone, and the President is offering to work hand in glove with the New Order. This can’t be real.
If it’s a dream, it’s a familiar one. The “new” Democrats say they want to make the government more responsive to the voters. They also want to ensure that the ethical messes the Republicans are now famous for, don’t happen again. The new House Speaker has said: it’s time to drain the swamp.
Of course, when the Republicans won control of the Congress, they said much the same thing. They also came to D. C. to change the cesspool that is Washington politics. Instead, they were seduced by the dark side. They became mired in the very filth they claimed to abhor. In the end, they became what they hated.
I think this happened because politicians feel the only way to help the rest of us is to stay in power. And to stay in power, they have to keep the voters under control, and thinking about the issues they want us to think about. They know that divisive tactics work best for keeping people in line: it’s either us or them; you’re either with us or against us; everything is either red or blue.
But people aren’t like that. People are much more complicated. No one that I know believes 100% of the same things as anyone else, much less a political party line. What generally happens is not voters picking the candidates that agree with the voter, but rather the ones that offend them the least. And so, no matter who wins, the voter loses on most issues. The voters, being neither red nor blue, are marooned.
There is no reason to believe that anything will be different this time around. Too bad – I know I'm only a little bear, but surely things can be better.
