Reality Check: Government Is Corrupt and Politicians Lie

In this little series on Reality vs the Coalition of the Comfortable, we now come to one of the real crux’s of the matter….trusting politicians to be honest and the government to work in the interest of The People.

History is replete with cases of corruption in the US government and it could be said that history itself is a catalog of the lies of politicians. I won’t bother to list them , if you don’t know at least the highlights…..you really have no business commenting on politics at all. Go forth and google.

Or…just look at the Health Care Debacle Debate, where the real dynamic was InsCos vs The People. How did the InsCos win? (And make no mistake, they won big.) They won by corrupting enough Senators and Blue Dogs to apply pressure on behalf of and to vote for them, over the interests of The People.

And so it goes.

So if you need proof of corruption in our government you don’t have to look very far. There are at least two Reps serving time right now. Nancy Pelosi et al had a nice turn of phrase while Bush was in office….The Culture of Corruption. But apparently, some folks think that entire Culture was subject to some kind of genocide when the Dems took office.

It wasn’t.

And so neither was the immense pressure that is put on ALL of our politicians to join that Culture. Including the president.

I will state right now, clearly, and for everyone to see. You can’t trust President Obama.

You can’t trust him for one simple reason….he is a politician, and all politicians are tempted by corruption.

To think Obama is an exception to the rule that power corrupts is just not….realty based.

He is a good man and apparently has a good heart. But again, history is a record of good men with good hearts who have been corrupted by power. To think there are exceptions to this rule is to be naive. Perhaps it is even the definition of naive.

We as citizens, with history as our guide, (especially the history of the last 50 years of the Dem Party) simply cannot afford to trust any politician.

Not only is it naive, it is completely abrogating and abandoning our DUTY as citizens to be the watchdogs of our government and our politicians. There is literally no one who is immune from the temptations of power. It is our job, our duty, under the system of representative democracy (what’s left of it) to assume that corruption has, is, and will continue in our government. From the lowest to the highest levels, politicians just cannot be trusted. Period.

So who can you trust?

YOU

You can trust in YOUR power as a citizen to keep watching, keep tabs, keep alert and keep the pressure on EVERY politician. To let them know that YOU are watching them, that YOU will act, that YOU will expose them if they stray.

That is our only defense against corruption and against the facile lies of our politicians. Unless you count the Senate Ethics Committee …… hahahahahahahahaha.

In the mess of corruption and temptation that is inevitable with trillions of dollars and the levers of power on the line, it is eminently understandable that people want someone they can trust, that we indeed hunger for it, that we are willing to go so far as to almost blindly give it to the first politician that seems different and that uses new and appealing populist rhetoric who comes down the road. That is OUR temptation.

And we cannot afford, nor can our nation, our world, or democracy afford, to throw away our role as citizens, to abrogate and abandon our DUTY as citizens…..just because we THINK we have found a politician we can trust.

Because history is also replete with the cast aside and disillusioned metaphorical corpses of citizens who put their trust in one man, one politician to ‘save’ them from the corruption of power…..and were betrayed.

Including the nearly 50% of voters who don’t vote at all because of disgust with our corrupt system. In which only the faces change, while the Culture remains.

Trust in yourself, and in your role in democracy itself. Do your job, your duty as a citizen and DO NOT buy the okeydoke…..again. Use YOUR power to HELP our politicians avoid temptation….

By watching them like hawks and not believing the pretty words of paid manipulators and speechwriters. Believe instead in your OWN power.

And USE it….to hold them responsible and accountable. That is your role in our political process, and you have nothing to gain but false comfort by abandoning that responsibility.