The disillusionment

Truth be told, this may be the most depressing political season that I’ve encountered in my lifetime.

In most cases, government runs on a political cycle where one party is in for a few terms, then voters desire a change and go the other way. Red turns to blue and back again, but little of substance really changes except the actors.

But the one constant through my life has been that of government getting larger, more intrusive, more politically correct, and more deeply entrenched in the concept of a nanny state because only they know what is good for you. Then you take the people who you elect to try and change this and find that most of them either are okay with the status quo or don’t have the manhood to fight the system with every tool at their disposal.

So we come to yesterday, which was literally the day after we celebrated the 240th anniversary of the day we chose to be self-governing as a nation, no longer dependent of an arbitrary and capricious King George and the British army. On that day we found out that you can avoid your day in court if you are running for President as the presumptive nominee of the Democrat Party. (To use an example it would be like the judge in the Trump University case saying “never mind” and tossing the lawsuit out by determining the plaintiffs have no case. I don’t see that happening.)

Yet while that’s a complete travesty of justice, the fact that many on the Left are saying Hillary is in the clear now is perhaps more disappointing yet. When President Nixon was impeached, Republicans agreed that the charges were serious enough to merit a trial in the Senate. Millions on all portions of the political spectrum ought to be outraged but it will be off the news cycle by next week, replaced with a new Trump scandal or perhaps another sensational celebrity story. It’s bread and circuses now.

I know better than to equate a politician with a Savior – since there’s only one of those, and Christians await his return at some unspecified future date – but it’s more and more likely that we may have two of the most unpopular, unprofessional, and dishonest candidates representing our major parties that we have ever had. Simple common decency seems to be unattainable with this pair, let alone any Christ-like tendencies.

To say that the entire situation sickens me is to understate the issue. How can you vote for either major-party Presidential candidate? Instead, people seem to be resigned to voting against the other candidate, which is an important distinction. There were roughly 128 million votes cast in the 2012 Presidential election, but I wouldn’t be shocked if we have fewer than 120 million this time around. There is a perception that it doesn’t matter; perhaps they feel as one candidate is famous for saying, “what difference at this point does it make?” Unless there is an electoral miracle, there will be no letup in the increase in size and scope of the federal government regardless of who wins. Truly, things have gone much farther in the wrong direction than they were when I wrote my book four years ago.

Sometimes I wonder if I would be better off spending my time writing another book than to come here and dispense free advice and the occasional first-person news account. At least with the book I can make a few pennies.

I’m not in that conspiracy crowd that believes 2016 is the last American election if Hillary wins, but it may be the last election where the Republican Party has a chance at winning with a philosophy of limited government and personal responsibility – apparently these are quaint, obsolete ideals now. If their platform changes to stop reflecting this idea, that may be the exit ramp I’m going to take.