So you think this Congress we have is better than the one before it? Frankly I don’t see much of a difference. I see the war in Iraq raging on as it was before the touted elections of 2006. I see “The Decider” still causing trouble in the world by threatening other nations and putting weapons systems in Europe in violation of the treaties we signed in good faith with Russia. Nothing has changed and this time we don’t have a Republican controlled Congress to blame. While it’s true that the Democrats can’t get a solid majority in Congress, I get the feeling that they are really happy that they can’t influence foreign policy. The most disgusting thing is that while people are dying and suffering in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Democrats secretly revel in this fact knowing that the public will blame the Republicans for this.
I say this because I believe that if they really wanted to get our forces out of Iraq,that they would do exactly what Mike Gravel said they should do, and that is to consistently bring this war in Iraq up for a vote in Congress, day after day. We all know that the Democrats have the needed muscle to stop this government if that’s what they choose to do. They refuse to do this because they don’t want to accept the responsibility for ending this war. It seems as if the Democrats want to have it both ways. They want to come out publicly and say they are against the war at the same time convincing the American people that they are powerless to stop it. That was a good excuse, but that excuse were thrown out the window when the American people gave Congress a mandate to end the war by voting the Democrats in and the Republicans out.
It is unconscionable to continue to vote time and time to fund this war. The American people have expressed their will to Congress that they want this war to end. This war is not dividing this nation like Vietnam divided this nation. In fact, it has actually united this nation in ways that the politicians can’t grasp. They are still playing and thinking by the old rules when in fact, people aren’t just sick and tired of this administration; it’s come to the point where Americans are sick and tired of their entire government. That includes both political parties the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judiciary!
This so called “War on Terror” has become anathema to the American people. Most of our citizen’s are tired of the government playing on the fear of another 9/11. There are quite a few Americans that think the truth behind 9/11 has never been told. Most Americans no longer trust their own government. Maybe that’s because the most of the people that have suffered since that day of terror have been American citizens. We have seen law after law written proposed and passed in Congress that takes away our freedoms. It wasn’t Americans that bombed the World Trade Center, how come we have to have passports to go to Mexico or to Canada? The Patriot Act is a direct attack on American rights. No Patriot that fought for independence would have allowed that foul and evil bill to pass in the legislature. How come this government can change over 200 hundred years of tradition in a scant five years and they can’t even raise the minimum wage?
Sometimes I feel that the terrorists are laughing hysterically at us. First, they send nineteen terrorists into the United States and lo and behold, by some quirk of fate, they manage to grab four airliners and without NORAD doing a thing, manage to cause tremendous damage. The President, feeling that he now has a blank check to run rampant, decides that he’s going to pin this entire thing on Iraq, who for years had managed to keep Al Qaeda out of his country. Thus, Bush has now given the terrorists two victories instead of one. Nice going George. Now we are stuck not only in Afghanistan, but in Iraq also. Then they see us giving up our rights to the Federal government, in morbid fear that the dreaded Al Qaeda may strike the United States again.
Britain endured years of bombing during years of fighting in World War II and never did they permanently surrender their rights to the government. They endured wartime curfews and occasionally surrendered rights for the “duration” but they never gave up the right of Habeas Corpus. We should be ashamed. Here’s where the politicians don’t get it. The American people ARE ashamed. We are ashamed that our government can’t do the will of the people. What the politicians don’t realize is that the American people believe that most of their elected officials are bought and paid for before they get into office by their corporate masters that fund their political races.
For the most part, American doesn’t trust Congress to do the right thing anymore. The approval rate for Congress is at the lowest point since the poll was started. Meanwhile, Congress goes about its daily job oblivious to how the American people feel about them. I like to say that they are oblivious but the truth is Congress just doesn’t care. They believe that the two party system that we have created will sustain them and the Democrats believe that they only have to show a modicum of believability over the Republicans, and their Presidential and Congressional aspirations will be met. The truth is that they just don’t understand!
The American people are almost completely fed up! I don’t hear a kind word from anyone about the government. The only thing that the Democrats have achieved from winning the 2006 Congressional races and the Congressional majority is that Democrats are now hated as much as the Republicans are. Nice going Pelosi. You and Reid have finally made it to the big time.
What will be the result of all of this anger directed towards Congress? You only have to look towards the history books to find out. History has a funny way of repeating itself. Eventually, you are going to see a hard shift to candidates that stay on the fringes of party politics. Sooner or later another political party will emerge, and one or both of the parties now holding center stage will cease to exist. Personally, I believe they will merge. There isn’t too much difference between them now, and that isn’t just my opinion. All I hope for is that the usual change from the two major parties that we have now doesn’t happen as slowly as it did during the past.
These politicians that occupy Congress really don’t have a clue that they are pretty well despised. In fact Congressional approval ratings are 27%, the lowest in a decade. So something has got to give. I predict that unless something is done about this war, Immigration, The Minimum Wage, and the curtailment of Habeas Corpus and other American rights, approval rating will get lower. Still, Congress doesn’t have a clue. This might be a good time to run for office.
