So the recent elections have come and gone with the Republicans winning resounding victories all across the board. I suppose some congratulations are in order, or they would be if I had the memory of a sea sponge. You see, I remember this thing that happened a year and some change ago. It was that one time when the Republicans and Democrats decided to shut down the government because our political leaders suddenly transformed into gigantic babies and threw equally embarrassing temper-tantrums over health care. Okay, it was more complicated than that, but I cannot remember a time I was more embarrassed to be an American than that circus act.
However, rather than being embarrassed this time around, I have been emptied by the election results. Not because I don’t like Republicans, no I assure you I am an equally-frustrated-with-both-big-parties Independent voter, but because so many incumbent candidates kept their jobs. To me, it really does not matter which way the pendulum swings because I know that it will eventually swing the opposite way and keep this broken two-party system we’ve cultivated for ourselves a-going. I am just surprised that a lot of the same people who descended to the state of children throwing fits in the cereal aisle were allowed to keep their jobs. And then surprise fed right into my emptying soul.
The system that we depend on for law and order in this country failed us spectacularly and a lot of people decided to reward the behavior of those in charge with more time in office. People who have managed to hang around with a resounding eight percent approval rating, Honestly I am shocked it is even that high after this last decade’s brilliant performances of monkey politics.
And maybe as Wyomingites we get a free pass for allowing these people to stay in office since Enzi was in the Republican-minority Senate during that shutdown nonsense, but I’m not giving anyone free passes. Enzi and Lummis are just cogs in a machine that favors childish quitting tactics over actually behaving like adults and understanding that sometimes you have to make compromises. Some people might like to reward non-comprising behavior because it is manly and you won’t make John Wayne roll around in his grave or some crap like that, but when the alternative is nothing getting done and closing shop for sixteen days, I’d rather everyone act like they’re in an episode of Sesame Street.
I don’t even want some sort of massive overturn of current U.S. politics. We can have the two-party system. At least it’s better than a one-party system, though not by much. I just want a government that is held accountable by the public for immense incompetency. And with the past elections behind us, I can safely say we do not live in that kind of country. Australia is that kind of country. They had a government shutdown once back in 1975. Do you know what happened? They fired their old Congress and elected a new one. They haven’t had a shutdown since. Boy, do I wish we were that kind of country.
