The Rant: When correctly viewed, everyone is screwed

Almost daily, a missive arrives announcing a new effort to “clean up politics.”

Usually, these breathless announcements come from one or the other political parties.

Their efforts are always aimed at the laughable assumption that one political party in this country is responsible for all the corruption in politics and the other (the one announcing the clean up) is blessed with purity and clean hands.

Which, of course, is bullshit. Like most of the viruses that affect the political power structure in this nation, corruption crosses all party lines, infects all political philosophies and drives most of the posturing and spin.

Political corruption runs in cycles, normally favoring the party in power. But its stain is universal, its appeal non-partisan and its presence ecumenical.

This “we’re always right and you’re always wrong” nonsense rose to a deafening roar during the Trent Lott “I love a racist” debacle. Democrats pounced on Lott’s stupidity like mad dogs in a feeding frenzy, declaring him the poster child of Republican racism and the root of all problems faced by black people during the last 230 years.

Republicans responded by declaring themselves pure of thoughts and deed and claiming Democrats are the real racists.

The sad fact is that neither party would recognize the truth if it walked up and kicked them in the balls. Truth split town a long time ago, tired of being misquoted and misused by both parties in their endless search for the perfect spin.

Truth cannot exist in an environment where posturing prevails and facts are subject to “interpretation.” Truth disappears in a political system where “positions” are accepted as fact and reality is blurred by party doctrine.

Republicans love to dump on their favorite whipping boy – the scandal-scarred and morally-challenged William Jefferson Clinton. True, a sex-crazed President who whips out the First Member and jams it into willing interns makes a good target and kicking him almost seems too easy.

But the party of the elephants has its own closet full of skeletons. Let’s not forget Richard Milhous Nixon, who also lied to the American people, tried to subvert the constitution or generally ignored the law of the land.

Yeah, we know. Old history. OK. How about a present-day scumbag named Admiral John Poindexter? He directed an arms for hostages swap with Iran during the Reagan days, then lied about it to Congress and would have ended up in jail had not a too-hastily-crafted immunity deal kept him out of the slammer.

So where’s Poindexter now? Oh, toiling away in the Bush administration, directing the creation of a massive database that will track the day-to-day financial transactions of all Americans. This project, called the Total Information Awareness System, has been called the greatest threat to individual freedom and privacy in modern times.

“What we have here is the magical cleansing powers of political loyalty,” says political scientist George Harleigh. “Crimes are scandal when committed by the other party but they are overlooked when performed by a party member.”

Most political history, past and present, is tainted by this kind of hypocrisy. Bill Clinton dorked interns but was investigated by a Congressional committee chaired by Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican with his own history of tail chasing (including putting his lover on the payroll and bringing her to Washington).

Democrats claimed Trent Lott exemplified Republican racism but carefully avoided West Virginia Democratic Senator Robert Byrd’s past membership in the Ku Klux Klan.

So stop bugging me with all these hallow claims of purity and false promises to clean up politics.

The sad truth is that all sides of the political spectrum in Washington are dominated by liars, crooks and thieves.

Even the sainted Harry Browne can not escape this trap.

He once again asks the question, if the People who were in Charge on 9/11 are still in charge, how can we feel safe?

After all they are nothing but politicians after their next vote, or a bureaucrat kissing up to the next boss.

Look at Michelle Malkins Latest article, and these are the people that are suppose to be working for us.

The different between a republican and a rat is the degree, not the substance.

BTW don't give me the crap about the tax cut, the current occupant of the white house felt guilty about how much he was stealing and decided to give a little back to the rightful owner.

The sad truth is that all sides of the political spectrum in Washington are dominated by liars, crooks and thieves.

I used to think that the above indictment was stupid, short sighted and untrue. And that those who made such statements were just using "My guy is no worse than your guy" obsfucation tactics.

I have now soured on whole the process and believe the entire political class with only painfully rare exceptions is an elitist band of greedy white glove thugs out to rob me and put in chains for their own selfish purposes.

Am I far off the mark??

Accepting, for the sake of argument, the author's assertion that both sides are equally blameworthy (a matter of conjecture at best), you have to look at the purpose to which the power so gained is put. In a [very parsimonious] nutshell, 'Rats favor fettered enterprise and free love, while Pubbies prefer free enterprise and fettered love. These are not equal, and you have to make a choice when you pull the lever.

But the party of the elephants has its own closet full of skeletons. Let’s not forget Richard Milhous Nixon...

Let's not forget that the "party of the elephants" took out their OWN garbage.
The party of asses keeps clinton front and center, STILL stinking up the joint.

Let’s not forget Richard Milhous Nixon, who also lied to the American people, tried to subvert the constitution or generally ignored the law of the land.

I'm really sick and tired of hearing this. Not that it isn't true. But the WORST, the absolute WORST subversion of the Constitution has been at the hands of the Supreme Court, and the worst of the worst have been the abortion decisions. Forty-five million Americans have been murdered, which means that about 80 million killers are loose in American society. That means that tens of millions of Americans have a vested interest in the current "interpretation" of the Constitution for the sake of their fragile self-respect. Our society is moribund, as a result.

I appreciate the rants of Doug Thompson, though I wouldn't go as far as to use his invective. Still, when one finishes this rant, the question hangs in the air: What are we/YOU going to do about it?
There are answers to that question. Some of them are steps that any citizen who is tired of the same old-same old can take, starting today. And if a million Americans take up the cudgel on the Internet, talk radio, news TV, etc., we CAN get results. We are not powerless before the juggernaut of corrupt incumbents.
Try the second link below for what to do, rather than merely complain.

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest column on UPI, "Ignorance in America" (Up on UPI wire, and FR.)

As the man formerly known as Al Gore said, Buy my book, "to Restore Trust in America"

Am I far off the mark??

No, unfortunately you have it right. No human can resist the temptations to corruption when so much power is in their hands. The founders had the idea of limiting the power of government to limit the loss to corruption.

Over the years, both liberals and conservatives have favored watering down the chains of the constitution in order to deal with some short term crisis or other. These crises go away but the new interpretation of the constitution stays and enables the next step to tyranny.

The War on Terror is just the crisis of today and does not justify all the horrible things done to fight it.

The solution: ENFORCE THE BILL OF RIGHTS! No ifs, ands, or buts. No exceptions for this or that crisis ever.

"Republicans responded by declaring themselves pure of thoughts and deed and claiming Democrats are the real racists."

I had an epiphany about the "We Shall Overcome" song that sprang up out of the "Civil Rights" movement! The coded message in that phrase is... We Shall Overcome WITH GUILT!!!

I'm not guilty, you're not guilty, the U.S.A. is no longer guilty, Trent Lott is not guilty and Dr./Senate Majority Leader Frist as well as the Repellican Party are NOT GUILTY!!! (neither are most Demonicrats, by the way)

As soon as all politicians stop wrestling with the pigs in the mud-pit of guilt with the guilt ridden media whooping it up on the sidelines, the being overcome with guilt, will surely stop and progress toward a unified American as a melting pot with enforceable legal borders, can resume.

"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the TRUTH becomes the greatest ENEMY OF THE STATE.” — Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels

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