After postmodern America

I don't know about you, but to me it is getting more than just a
little irritating listening to the various establishment political
figures and presidential candidates in this country prattle on about how
they're going to "reform" this or "clean up" that or "change the
direction" the country is headed.

Worse, it is becoming apparent that -- thanks to the absolute
criminality of the Clinton administration and the GOP congressional
majority's permissive attitude towards it -- fewer Americans seem to
care one way or the other who ends up in the White House.

That's because most people know that regardless of who it is, we the
people are likely to get the shaft anyway; politics in our country has
devolved into a gutter war between elitists and arrogant powermongers
who are little more than self-gratifying, hypocritical leeches and who
see their lot in life as a self-serving means to an end. Politics, to
them, has morphed from a position of public trust, integrity, service
and duty into a vile game of survival of the fittest. Americans are paid
lip service to these noble ideals of leadership but little more.

There almost has not been one day that has passed in decades that
some government official, president or lawmaker has not been caught
doing something illegal or "improper." Yet, looking back on the number
of obvious violations versus the number of known prosecutions for said
violations, one will notice a strange hypocrisy: If any
prosecutions occurred, they usually consisted of jailing some
low-ladder, mid-level flunky rather than the powerful elite masters he
or she was working for.

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This phenomenon has happened to numerous "Friends of Clinton," but
was also apparent in earlier administrations (Col. Ollie North during
Reagan's administration comes to mind).

In the case of the Clinton administration, though, the breaches of
law have been so obvious, egregious, flagrant and numerous that only a
moron or somebody who is incapable of accepting the truth can deny
this. Yet in an ostensibly politically "hostile" environment (Clinton
is a Democrat and Congress is dominated by Republicans) this man and
most of his high-ranking officials have repeatedly escaped justice on
the flimsiest of reasons, suggesting that those who would hold him
responsible are incapable of doing so because of mutual corruption.

But regardless of party or political affiliation -- as J.R. Nyquist
suggested in a recent
column
-- Congress and the federal bureaucracy both suffer from a lack of self
control, leading to abuse of their own offices. While these hypocrites
admonish the general public to "take responsibility" for this or that,
these people -- anointed as they are -- flat out refuse to follow their
own advice.

Who's going to change all of this? Though they don't stand a chance
of being elected, there are a few presidential candidates who look
promising. But presidents alone cannot -- and should not have the power
to -- make these changes themselves. It must come from a governing
coalition which includes we the people (in this republic anyway);
yet, each passing election cycle moves us further into the political
abyss. Forget the phrase, "Clinton fatigue;" a better characterization
would be apathy.

American society, as a whole, could care less what goes on in
Washington, D.C. Most people -- thanks to loads of indoctrination --
don't feel they have the "power" to do anything about anything, no
matter how strongly they disagree with it.

Americans, who are the most successful race of people in modern
history, have become too successful in many ways without being
challenged enough to "remember where we came from." Instant credit,
instant food, instant success and instant lives -- minus any dangers or
threats -- have conditioned us to believe this must be the way it
is supposed to be and that the party can never end simply because we say
it can't. It can and it will, but to the surprise -- and horror -- of
millions who are just not capable of imagining that the ride could end
someday. In this day and age, complacency is our greatest enemy.

Whose fault is that? Are 265 million Americans really saying
that 535 congressmen, a president and vice president, and a few thousand
public officials should shoulder all of the responsibility? Are we not
liable for mapping out our own destiny or are we content to let others
do that -- then complain when they take us down paths we never wanted to
take? Shouldn't their corruption be a tip-off to us that maybe they're
not the best people in which to put so much faith and so much power?

As I view the American political landscape these days, I hear lots of
voices crying out in the wilderness for some attention that they never
get. They ought to, mind you, because these are good people with solid
ideas and great solutions, but "the establishment" has grown so large as
to drown them out with a single bellow from on high.

In the end, good ideas and wonderful solutions are buried along with
idealistic "reformers" who never make it to political first base in this
country because the "powers that be" won't have it. They know
what's best for us. And us? Well, we're just supposed to pay what we
"owe," mind our own business and be happy about whatever scraps from the
tables of the overindulged we're given.

The trouble is no one who will win the White House this year
-- and quite probably in 2004 -- is going to do a damned thing to change
most of what's wrong with this country. It is that very system that will
get them elected in the first place; who in their right mind actually
believes these guarantors of largess would burn the bridge that led them
to power?

Worse, at this point in our history there are too few of us who
even believe we have major problems in this country -- problems
that threaten the very survival of our republic. Our "leaders" know
this, which is why they routinely avoid talking about these problems in
public. They know that our political system is so corrupt that you have
to be corrupt -- or corruptible -- before you can even get a nod from
the anointed duopoly running the show. Those few in power who are not
corrupted already are ignored, demonized and relegated to obscurity --
as are we.

As I thought about this column, I was reminded of Psalms 37:11, which
says, "But the meek shall inherit the earth; and delight themselves in
the abundance of peace." As I see it "meek" does not equate to "weak;"
most of those who "lead" us are weak physically, spiritually and
emotionally and are only strong in the relative sense. Their kind of
"power" is transitional and self-destructive.

But the "meek," in this sense, means all of the rest of us who do not
seek an overabundance of power, recognition or control -- content to be
"meek" and unnoticed while we remain strong in important characteristics
that form the lasting tenets of a successful society.

I have no doubt that "we" will inherit, ultimately, the ruins of a
post-modern world, which, of course, will include the once-great United
States of America. But there will be hell to pay getting there.