It was 8 p.m. on Thursday night. This column is due Friday at noon, and I didn't have the faintest clue what to write about.
Oh sure, there was plenty of stuff in the news. I could have addressed any number of serious, important and immediate issues. But nothing was "gelling" in my mind.
"The problem," I complained to my patient husband, "is I am sick and tired of politics. Absolutely sick of it."
"So write about that," he urged. "You can't possibly be the only one."
He's right. So here's this week's issue: I am sick and tired of politics.
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I hate politics. I always have and probably always will. This is ironic since I write socio-political commentary, but there you go.
I'm sick of rich political elites living in ivory towers hundreds or thousands of miles away who think they can tell me what to do. These are people who only strive to benefit themselves, not the people who sent them there (and who pay their salaries). I'm sick of having laws and taxes passed without consent of the people, no matter how much outraged citizens may protest.
I just want to be left alone.
I'm a country girl at heart and ask little more in life than to live on our small farm and make it productive. When I pick pears off the tree, or can tomato sauce from our garden, or milk our cow and make cheese, or any of a hundred other ordinary daily tasks, my heart is full and I am content. But all it takes is for me to pull up the news and my happy little world is shattered. Again. And again. And again.
The more I look around, the less I'm interested in anything involving the political process. In this, I'm not alone. A 2014 article by Michael Snyder entitled "12 Numbers Which Prove That Americans Are Sick And Tired Of Politics As Usual," he notes: "The American people are increasingly waking up to the fact that nothing ever seems to change in Washington, D.C., no matter which political party is in power. In fact, as you will see later on in this article, an all-time high 53 percent of all Americans believe that neither party 'represents the American people.'"
It's easy to predict what happens when people believe they are no longer represented: Apathy sets in. Why, the reasoning goes, should I devote most of my waking hours to bashing my head against a brick wall? It does nothing but cause headaches and doesn't affect the brick at all. That, my friends, is what our current political system is like.
So people turn off. Turn away. Give up. Go on with their lives, coping as best they can with the cumbersome, bewildering and (mostly) unnecessary rules and regulations the government sees fit to impose.
Trouble is, that's what politicians are counting on. They're hoping – desperately – that not enough people will care about the scandals, the "mis-speaks," the horrifically unconstitutional legislation buried in boring thousand-page bills.
In short, politicians are counting on us to hate politics enough to not be involved or informed. Bread and circuses. It's been that way for millennia.
Snyder writes, "The mainstream media would have us believe that the Republicans and the Democrats are constantly fighting like cats and dogs, but the truth is that the Republicans want to take us to the same place that the Democrats want to take us – just a little more slowly perhaps. And behind the scenes, Republicans and Democrats have a good time with one another and they are ultimately controlled by the same set of oligarchs. The Americans people are really starting to recognize what a sham our system has become, and the numbers show that they are quite fed up with it."
He concludes by saying, "No wonder so many Americans are so angry. … Unfortunately, even though so many people are angry and frustrated, there is very little consensus on the solutions to our problems."
Therein lies the hope and dream of all politicians. If the American people cannot reach a consensus for solutions (apparently consulting the Constitution from time to time is out of the question), then it's up to the politicians to find a solution – and make no mistake, the solution will benefit the political body, NOT the American people.
Unlike traditional monarchies or modern dictatorships, America is (or was) a unique place where everyone, no matter how lowly, could participate in the governmental process and in theory have a voice, rather than be mere pawns in an enormous political game of chess.
But we're getting less and less like that every day. More and more, the little people have no voice, no hope of change, no way to make a difference in the taxes that are imposed or the laws that are passed without their consent.
It's times like this that our cows and our garden are especially appealing. I want to bury myself in corn and tomatoes, chickens and calves, and let the winds of change billow and storm around me. But I can't.
Any involvement I have with the political system is miniscule at best, and I'm quite certain won't make any difference. It would be like a minnow expecting to turn around an ocean liner. The ocean liner would just plow forward, totally oblivious to the efforts of the minnow, and run the poor little fishy over.
But at least the minnow will have tried its best. And when that minnow gets to the pearly gates and meets with St. Paul, maybe he'll say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You tried."
I still do, and always will, hate politics. That's because the people it attracts are by definition power-mad and mentally disturbed. Certainly, they are not the type of people who could understand the quiet joys of those of us tied to the earth with gardens and livestock and families. But I'll keep trying to turn that ocean liner.
Which, you might argue, says something about my mental state as well.
Media wishing to interview Patrice Lewis, please contact [email protected].
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