Here and There

I’m feeling … blah these days. At the risk of embarrassment, I care about politics in the United States. But underlying that care is a belief in the importance of law and an interest in the goings on in people’s lives.

That said, the upcoming election has me a bit depressed. Even the best, most rosy scenario I can envision won’t cure some of the ills facing the country and the world.

Call it cynicism, I just can’t imagine things getting any better anytime soon, no matter who’s making the call on policy.

I see the media and the public anxious for a new face, a new set of sound-bite ideas. But that same media and the same public seem to lack the attention span necessary to get to the heart of today’s problems. Buzzes come and go, and the grind seems to swallow up any palpable excitement as quickly as it appears on the national stage.

I’d love to be proven wrong. I’d love it if any number of election night scenarios ushered in a Congress (even one close to the make-up of the current one, God forbid) that took governing seriously. A Congress that told special interests and glad-handing lobbyists to go back to business, that government wasn’t for sale. I’d love to see a new set of election rules: one that made candidates more responsive to their potential constituents, not corporations; one that didn’t let lawmakers get away with evasive non-answers to a press that is simply doing its job; one in which ethics are actually enforced; one that is transparent and whose accountability is taken seriously.

I don’t blame Republicans for the current erosion in Washington. Any party that’s been in power that long inevitably tends to corrode. I do blame Democrats for not offering the public something like a true alternative. And I blame that same public for buying into the Republican scheme time and again.

It’s always a good idea to be weary of power. If the Democrats win back one or both houses of Congress, I will be as skeptical and inquiring and incredulous of them as I am now of Republicans.

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