Personal POV

Since I seem determined to come down heavily on a few sacred cows, I should explain where I’m coming from. I am neither liberal nor conservative. I have a deep disgust for politicians, suspecting their performance, intentions, and ethics. They’ve earned it.

In my humble opinion, government should indeed be run for the benefit of the people. Its responsibilities include the education and welfare of its citizens, and my government has performed admirably in its accomplishments and abominably per its potential.

Admirably, liberal democracies have rid themselves of slavery, though it took over 600,000 lives, 2% of this nation’s population at the time. One hundred years later, in aftershock, this nation rid itself of segregation with minimal loss of life, thanks largely to non-violent leadership by ML King. We celebrate him with a national holiday.

Religions in comparison tend to conserve institutions including horrendous ones like slavery, while considering themselves the bastions of morality. Even today they continue gender suppression, although they have embraced other equalities.

Abominably, our democracy has failed to live up to its potential in some rather obvious ways. It has failed to educate its citizens, as indicated by the H1B program, where we have to import foreign workers because we do not have those qualified to perform the same work at the same skill level. States using lottery proceeds have taken up much of the responsibility by paying college expenses for any of its citizens who perform at a prescribed level. I've addressed education in other blog entries, and shall do so again.

Another example is health care. We supposedly have the best health care system in the world, and definitely the most expensive. However, it doesn’t cover at least forty million who cannot afford it. The government has increased this acuity by requiring hospitals to treat those who cannot pay, thus inflicting a silent tax on those who must pay extra to cover that cost.

Examples of politicians’ ethical lapses include the “shrieker of the house.” In her first 100 hours, the Congress passed an increase in minimum wage, except for Guam. Guam has a tuna processing plant, its largest minimum wage employer. Star-Kist’s headquarters is in guess-who’s political district. Nice lady.

Of course, observing Congressional approval ratings were 1/2 George W. Bush's at his worst, I would venture to say I'm not alone. Obviously, the most prevalent crime in America is Contempt of Congress!