Politcs As Usual

One of the promises made on the campaign trail was that Barack Obama was going to clean up Washington and do away with politics as usual. How refreshing that would be, and what a promise. To finally get the politicians working for the people. So have we seen an end to politics as usual? Not from my perspective. It appears more that he fired some gamma ray radiation at it and turned wimpy politics as usual into the Incredible Hulk of PAU.

So what is politics as usual? How would we really define it? My personal definition is putting the re-election campaign fund above all other priorities, partisanship, corruption and useless bickering. Considering that definition, have we really seen even the slightest attempt to stop politics as usual? Hell no!

What was the first step in this process, appointing one of the most partisan people in the country as Chief of Staff. Good first step. Then we have a man who can't do his own taxes correctly appointed as the head of the Treasury Dept and the IRS. Then after promising bi-partisanship, excludes the Republicans from any policy committee discussions. His answer to this was that "we need more than the failed policies of the past" which to me translates into "I already know what they're going to say and I don't want to hear it." We also have even more pandering to special interests and anybody who contributes to the campaign fund than before. ACORN anyone? Definitely not a decrease in this situation. So you and me, if we can't make a $20,000 campaign contribution, mean nothing at all to our representative. We also have some of the most blatant cronyism going on, and nobody seems to care. Finally, have the personal attacks or the vitriol coming out of Washington lessened in the slightest? Nope. And then there are the Czars. I don't know if this falls into the definition of politics as usual, but the President now has a Czar for pretty much anything and everything and it's all paid by the taxpayer. So which of his powers has ne NOT delegated to a Czar?

So here we are, nearly 7 months into the administration, and in order to pass his agenda before the American people can figure out exactly how much it's going to cost them at a time that the economy needs it least, they are playing politics as usual at the championship level. This administration could take the Olympic gold medal in politics as usual.

The bribes put into the cap and trade bill, in order to buy the votes of opposers, is the pinnacle of politics as usual.

The promise to work together and change Washington DC was the very first promise to get broken without even an attempt to keep it. And wasn't this what many people found most appealing?

When we are fed up with how Washington operates, and support somebody who promises to clean it up, only to find that the promise was just the "politics as usual" meaningless campaign promise, how do we keep from drowning in apathy and indifference? It does appear to me that not even our votes matter, because the information we base our votes on, can't be trusted at all.

So what's my solution? Throw the bums out. Every last greedy, power hungry and corrupt one of them.