Stoopid Stuff

There Really is Only One Word for It

So much has become clear recently. So many events that pull the last of the tattered, opaque veil from the seemingly disjoint and odd pronouncements and practices of our political elite.

No Impeachment. Regardless of the monumental monstrosity of the crimes.

No Accountability. Whether for the political operatives that infected our government, serving party rather than people, or for the telecom companies that take your money and don't even pretend to try and protect you, even if the law demands they do, but rush to betray you illegally. Not for the liars, the torturers, the thieves, the murderers. Not even for convicted felons.

No end to the disaster in Iraq. When violence was at it's peak, we had to stay. Now violence is down. And we have to stay.

The blatant nature of the crimes is exceeded only by the audacious cover-ups.

The lies just pile up, one upon the other, and when it is so often made clear and obvious that they ARE, in fact lies, nothing happens. Nothing.

And always, everywhere, it is the weakest, poorest, the innocents who suffer and die. And nobody seems particularly bothered by it.

I'm disgusted. The disgust is broad, omni-directional, and deeply visceral. Somehow, the disgust is beyond the outrage I used to feel. It is the disgust of acceptance. This is the new normal. The trajectory is set, the outcome is no longer in doubt. The winners are greed, paranoia, fear and hatred.

I'm disgusted with bush, cheney and rove. But somehow, less than I was, both because I have realized that the venal, criminal behavior they have demonstrated time and again is so widely shared among our political elite, and because, unlike the liars on the other side, they make no attempt to pretend that it is anything other than their nature. It is like expecting a skunk not to stink, or a bear not fart, or a monkey not to fling poo - there is no point in appealing to their best natures once you realize they do not have one.

I'm disgusted with Pelosi, with Reid and Hoyer. When you are the politcal opposition and you are empowered to bring a halt to at least some of the excesses of the party in power, and then you prostrate yourselves before them and allow them to achieve EVERY one of their politcal goals unchallenged, you have abdicated your responsibilities and should resign in shame. When you are complicit in the crimes to the extent that you cannot oppose them in fear of prosecution FOR them, you no longer have any right to the positions you hold.

I'm disgusted with Gates and Petraeus, with Rice and Crocker, with al-Maliki and al-Sadr and every other participant in that sad charade, playing at political and economic gamesmanship while millions suffer.

I'm disgusted with Mugabe and al-Bashir and Tadić and every other political leader who lets their own people suffer and die while they enrich themselves and indulge their sick tribal hatreds.

I'm disgusted with Brown and Sarkozy and Putin and Hu Jintao who will not take a brave political stance on matters of war, of peace, of freedom and dignity, or even of climate change, but rather all seem to have decided just to "go along to get along".

I'm disgusted with McCain and Obama, lying and posturing, still trying to pander to people's worst hatreds and fears, offering slogans and catch-phrases rather than solutions.

I'm disgusted, I'm tired, I'm soul-sick, I'm resigned. I can't see a sustainable future, I can't see a reason to believe that America might ever again be a constitutional democracy with the values that others could aspire to. It's all wrecked, it's all just ashes now.

I'm old enough that I don't have to worry about the future so much. But I see an ugly descent into a dystopian future of a toxic environment, "small" nuclear wars, wars over resources as basic as food and water and as advanced as plutonium and platinum. I see nationalism, ethnicism, religious fundamentalism and increasing poverty and desperation causing widespread violence. I see the vast and growing divide between rich and poor creating massive refugee events, with the attendant starvation and disease.

I don't know how much the current crop of greedy, venal, lying governments and leaders are responsible for the future that is rapidly coming into terrifying focus, but I do know that in the future, historians will look back at the '90s and '00s and wonder why, with all these problems clearly impending, no one bothered to do anything but get rich and try to stay out of prison.

posted by mikey @ 3:42 PM