{I was originally going to post this on Dave Walden's thread addressed to Decker, but since that thread was wandering way away from it's initiation, I decided to make it it's own thread.}

The real problem with gov't is that WE (That's right. WE. No shirking of responsibility here)have a tendency to elect based upon whose got the cutest butt, or the whitest smile, or looks the best in a brown suit. The morality, or lack thereof, of the breed becomes almost incidental (I say almost, because I suppose you have to have at least a little elasticity in your concept of right and wrong, to play the game). What we end up with is a bunch of talking Barbie Dolls, who lack either the mental capacity or the empathy to spend anytime focusing on what their real job is. They grandstand, they make rediculous promises, they level outrageous accusations at the opposition, all in the interest of giving us our daily quota of bread and circuses.

And don't think for a second that a good scandal is always a bad thing for these people. Nothing shores up support among the party faitful, like a good assault. Look at Clinton's approval ratings during BJ-gate; look at how many people who were outraged at what happened to Nixon. Even if you end up losing your political position, you know you still have a lucrative career ahead of you as a consultant or author.

Clinton's biggest political mistake may be his refusal to resign. Quit while your beleaguered, and you always remain the underdog - that poor fellow who was unjustly picked on and robbed of his chance for greatness. I think Nixon will ultimately prove to be the "better" political animal. That the principals of Machiavelli are still in full swing with the average political animal, is our fault. We enable it. We enable it everytime we go into a voting booth with no knowledge of the issues or candidates and play multiple guess with our choices. We enable it everytime we give into apathy, laziness or cynicism and just stay away on voting day. We enable it everytime we get all warm and runny over a particular candidates "charisma factor".

If we truly are at the point where there is no way to "fix" gov't, besides stringing them all up and starting over, then we have only ourselves to blame. We have a system that allowed for lots of fixes, at any particular point in time. In short, we left the barn door open, and we're standing around cursing the cows for leaving.

If there truly is a revolution, or if it becomes necessary to reconstruct gov't due to a Y2K collapse, then we need to spend at least as much time focusing on what we will change in ourselves, as we spend focusing on what we will change about gov't. I've seen a lot of posts where the original Pogo quote was changed to "We have seen the enemy and he is the gov't". I still say the original quote as the correct one. We as a species remain the problem.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), September 12, 1999

Answers

Bokonon, We elect who LOOKS best? Those men (most of them) are UGLY!!!! We'd be better off electing a bunch of people who are more attractive--maybe they would value their skins and the skins of the rest of us a little more. I agree, it's our fault. The voters can't seem to discern what is true or in their best interest. Of course what's in their best interest probably differes in my mind from what it appears in yours. At any rate, I don't think any of us wants the liars we have now who are really interested in what their government service does for THEM (only).

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), September 12, 1999.

the CORRUPTION is so deep, that only prayer can change' the problem. WE ARE in the FINAL-BATTLE, between=good & evil.

-- IT,S THAT TIME. (dogs@zianet.com), September 12, 1999.

Mara,

Yeah well, okay, maybe the "cute butt" part was off the mark...

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), September 12, 1999.

90% of WORLD decieved' & loving it.

-- hope in HIS promises. (dogs@zianet.com), September 12, 1999.