Dunce, D.C.

Posted on January 13, 2023 by jharrin4
Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue (I read somewhere). In short, it alludes to those who say one thing but do another. That change of intent might be an innocent act of hypocrisy or one that is egregious and damaging. That “tribute” is being paid by a vast number of our elected officials, especially the ones that currently occupy positions in our federal government.  Recent additions to our congressional membership include one newbie who evidently lied about his background. All of it, apparently. As of this writing that person may not even be the person he claims to be by name. That possible falsehood may not be in question, but these days what is there left to be shocked by when it comes to our congressional critter’s babblings? The recently elected Speaker of the House–who said whatever he needed to say to his own party’s hardliners keeping him from gaining the votes needed to finally emerge the winner tossed off some bromides about “working together” and “working for the American people” but I doubt he intends to do any such thing. I, for one, have little to zero confidence that any segment of our national government follows through on asserted platforms or proposals for a better America. As a long-standing opponent of what I see as a rigged, exclusive and corrupted two-party governing system, I feel hypocrisy is a polite critique for the misgivings of members of our current government. Hypocrites display hypocrisy. It’s an easy thing to be guilty of, writ small scale. We all change a smidge in our storylines if it’s not too reckless a sharp turn. But as far as the Body Politic goes right now, it’s a matter of  lunatics displaying lunacy. Writ large scale. Very large. Voters prevented a predicted “red wave” in the November, 2022, mid-terms. That is, the so-called “party of the people” retained a slim majority in the senate but lost enough seats in the House of Representatives to give the party of the 1 percenters (you know, those that never have enough wealth) the ability to form committees and fashion legislative sausage. The lunatics are now able to (and have not been afraid to announce their intent) waste the tax payer’s money on witch hunts and vendettas against their counterparts “across the aisle”. Not sure what they fear from the Donkey Party, since it has enabled our current decades-long descent into neo-liberal policies that take from those who have the least, or those who have a little, or even a modest means of making ends meet, and routinely giving what they take to those rich, dispassionate, greedy, fat cats. Thus, we the people, must endure two years of lunacy from a party that harbors lunatics, nitwits, con artists, double-dealers, back-stabbers, two-timers, scammers and…oh…unless one is a MAGA moron, I assume you get and approve of my invective-laced assessment of the state of our union. I’m exhausted by this sickening scenario of creeping fascism. The daily objective of trying not to think about it has become ever-more challenging. Perhaps thinking of it as a circus of slapstick politics is possible. I mean, the clown car is impossibly packed with those who not only hate that other Party but can’t seem to stop eating their own. Isn’t that worth a derisive snicker or two? Hmm. I have got to stop writing about the cesspool stench coming from D.C. and many statehouses. I need a distraction. Paging The Onion. Or Alfred E. Neuman. Something satirical but light all at once. Yeah that’s it. My copies of Orwell, Huxley, Atwood and others whose dystopian fictions have become fact, need be placed out of sight. Another reading of the Confederacy of Dunces might by be in order though.

About jharrin4

mass communication/speech instructor at College of DuPage and Triton College in suburban Chicago. Army veteran of the Viet Nam era.
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1 Response to Dunce, D.C.

  1. Catherine O'Brian says:
    January 14, 2023 at 9:46 pm

    A clear-eyed assessment of the state of our union.

    Like

    Reply

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