Another Shot at Disillusionment

This is a national election year. Seats of government go up in the air and after all the money's spent and the shouting's over some people will walk into offices and hold power. That power will, without exception, taint. It always does.
Let's state the obvious.

Money is the lube of the Washington machine. Candidates will make promises to those who fund their run. They better make good on those promises.

Nobody who rises very far can get there without lots of money in this country. Nor, in my opinion, without lies and manipulation.

There are plenty of people in huge power who never run for office. They call a lot of shots but We never put them there. And We can't remove them.

The Electoral College makes voting for President a token gesture.

There are few people who can handle a life in politics. It takes a particular psyche. It attracts dilletantes, manipulators and ego-driven nuts.

It's a bleak prospect for We The People. I don't like the push towards theocracy that's being foisted upon us. I don't like the backwards slide into the McCarthy era that I'm watching happen. I don't like the rich getting everything they want. I don't like "the media". I don't like opinions being called news and I don't like "journalists" who repeat party catchphrases as truth. I expect better. I just do.

One of the only reasons I won't leave Vermont is because we have Bernie Sanders in Congress. Vermont is not like many other states. We're old-fashioned Liberal for the most part. We're also a small state where you can know your Governor, and your Congresspeople. We're very conscious about doing the Right Thing by others. Maybe because we know who the others are; they aren't nameless, they're neighbors and family and friends. Everything you do here, everything you get involved with, is tentacled to others. The responsibility that comes with that knowledge makes for considered actions. It's not so in many other places in this country.

While we still live under that old Lincoln rule about fooling the people, people will be fooled when they stop thinking, stop paying attention, stop listening to their sense of right and wrong. You can fool all of The People some of the time, and that some of the time is now. That needs to end. I don't want to look back in nostalgia. I want to look forward with opportunities and ideas. But I have little hope left. With the line-up of candidates we have, no matter who wins the White House, I'll be somewhere on the disillusionment scale. All that remains is the degree.