Cicero
Mayor
Thanks to Ϣάηḁgi I was clued in on a Gallup poll rating the U.S. Legislature and their body politics parasites, the lobbyist, in the viewpoint of the voting public. It's low people. It's lower than a snake's belly. It's lower than whale feces . . . and that stuff sinks. It's even lower than -- gasp! -- that of a used car salesman. Shudder!
Oh and here is the link to that site.
So what's it mean? You gotta ask that because everything means more than one thing. In this case, aside from the obvious, it means that our legislators are living in a dream world where they can blithely carry on business as usual just as if the entire nation and the world [that part of it with internet connections anyway] wasn't capable of following the news 24/7 at will.
Members of the U.S. Congress now live in a information fishbowl whether they are consciously aware of it or not; and most of them don't seem to be.
Their attitude seems to be 'safety in anonymity'. That is, if their name is not being splashed across the news in a negative way then nobody but their constituents even know that they exist, and therefore they are safe. It hasn't yet dawned on them that the entire legislative branch is on political trial in the voting public's viewpoint and so none of them are safe.
The voting public? Think of mob rule. Yeah, democracy; but not in a good way. Democracy with pitchforks and burning torch ends. Think of frustrated Wallmart shoppers on Black Friday after waiting forever in the cold and wind for the damn doors to open. Yeah, that sort of mob; and its ire is directed at the legislative branch . . . and frustration is growing because those dumb bastards are still playing what they have come to think of as safe and traditional political games while the nation is gradually burning down to its fiscal and economic stubble.
U.S. legislators live in a different world from average citizens. For one thing I don't think it is possible to find a second term senator who's not technically wealthy. Getting rich comes with the position and almost seems to be necessary before you can even get the very nearly lifetime sinecure position.
I am not putting down the pursuit of personal wealth and the accumulation of the same; but I am pointing out that a wealthy public servant tends not to think of him or herself as . . . any form of servant at all. Oh my!
As for the House -- well -- perhaps not so very much, but I suspect that most of them [magically] also find interesting and perhaps not so very ethical ways of somehow going from economically average to comfortable to wealthy after they have been beebopping around the halls of Congress for only a few years.
Sweet, eh? Not to people frustrated because they have watched their comfortable life saving's nest eggs vanish due to inflation and Wall Street crapola.
What Congress men and women do not grasp is that not only is the public very angry at them for doing nothing of a meaningful manner regarding the growing plight of the average citizen but that this frustration and rage could easily explode in the nation's face.
Meanwhile our legislators continue to play their traditional political games.
It's not beyond the realm of possibilities that in the not so very distant future our U.S. legislators might just get forcefully reminded that when you are perceived to be doing nothing but piddle on citizens from a very great height while patting one another on the back and laughing at the ongoing plight of the peasant class . . . people decide to start snipping off tender bits of dangling political anatomy in retaliation.
We have entered a presidential election season -- projected to become one of the most acrimonious in nature and dirty to boot -- and many, many voters are going to be anxiety ridden about that, and so also lots of heretofore safe House and Senate spots are going to be up for voter's scrutiny in the process. The scrutiny of angry, frustrated, and just generally fed-up-to-the-gills voters.
Consider how shocked those long time politicos will be if what they thought was slated to be just another essentially predetermined defense of their lifetime sinecure position turns out instead to be the political fight of their lives.
Do you think that finally our legislative branch as a whole will 'get' the message that it's time to cease business as usual?
I can't wait to see.
Oh and here is the link to that site.
So what's it mean? You gotta ask that because everything means more than one thing. In this case, aside from the obvious, it means that our legislators are living in a dream world where they can blithely carry on business as usual just as if the entire nation and the world [that part of it with internet connections anyway] wasn't capable of following the news 24/7 at will.
Members of the U.S. Congress now live in a information fishbowl whether they are consciously aware of it or not; and most of them don't seem to be.
Their attitude seems to be 'safety in anonymity'. That is, if their name is not being splashed across the news in a negative way then nobody but their constituents even know that they exist, and therefore they are safe. It hasn't yet dawned on them that the entire legislative branch is on political trial in the voting public's viewpoint and so none of them are safe.
The voting public? Think of mob rule. Yeah, democracy; but not in a good way. Democracy with pitchforks and burning torch ends. Think of frustrated Wallmart shoppers on Black Friday after waiting forever in the cold and wind for the damn doors to open. Yeah, that sort of mob; and its ire is directed at the legislative branch . . . and frustration is growing because those dumb bastards are still playing what they have come to think of as safe and traditional political games while the nation is gradually burning down to its fiscal and economic stubble.
U.S. legislators live in a different world from average citizens. For one thing I don't think it is possible to find a second term senator who's not technically wealthy. Getting rich comes with the position and almost seems to be necessary before you can even get the very nearly lifetime sinecure position.
I am not putting down the pursuit of personal wealth and the accumulation of the same; but I am pointing out that a wealthy public servant tends not to think of him or herself as . . . any form of servant at all. Oh my!
As for the House -- well -- perhaps not so very much, but I suspect that most of them [magically] also find interesting and perhaps not so very ethical ways of somehow going from economically average to comfortable to wealthy after they have been beebopping around the halls of Congress for only a few years.
Sweet, eh? Not to people frustrated because they have watched their comfortable life saving's nest eggs vanish due to inflation and Wall Street crapola.
What Congress men and women do not grasp is that not only is the public very angry at them for doing nothing of a meaningful manner regarding the growing plight of the average citizen but that this frustration and rage could easily explode in the nation's face.
Meanwhile our legislators continue to play their traditional political games.
It's not beyond the realm of possibilities that in the not so very distant future our U.S. legislators might just get forcefully reminded that when you are perceived to be doing nothing but piddle on citizens from a very great height while patting one another on the back and laughing at the ongoing plight of the peasant class . . . people decide to start snipping off tender bits of dangling political anatomy in retaliation.
We have entered a presidential election season -- projected to become one of the most acrimonious in nature and dirty to boot -- and many, many voters are going to be anxiety ridden about that, and so also lots of heretofore safe House and Senate spots are going to be up for voter's scrutiny in the process. The scrutiny of angry, frustrated, and just generally fed-up-to-the-gills voters.
Consider how shocked those long time politicos will be if what they thought was slated to be just another essentially predetermined defense of their lifetime sinecure position turns out instead to be the political fight of their lives.
Do you think that finally our legislative branch as a whole will 'get' the message that it's time to cease business as usual?
I can't wait to see.