I, too, am TJIC

Because she has said it soooooo much better than I can, I asked Jenny S. for permission to just copy her post in its entirety.

So here it is, from A Call to Wings

I know I promised Lord, Never Again

Dear Congress...

I know. It's one of those "we have to talk" moments. You see... I've been thinking, and well... it's probably best we don't see each other any more.

I'd give you the "it's not you, it's me" but frankly..... no. It's you.

Quite frankly, as a body of people - I can't stand you.
I can't stand to see you. I can't stand to hear you.

I'm tired of the who's fault is it anyway speeches and I'm tired of the who's up for re-election and has to throw a bone to the proles vote trading and I'm tired of the hey look at the ballot boxes we found in the trunk stories. I'm tired of bribery so open on all sides that no one even blinks unless it's election time and makes for good campaign commercial fodder. I'm tired all the darling save the world schemes you come up with, but then take great care to exempt yourselves and your buddies from.

Your members range from the hopelessly clueless to the merely criminal - the best thing I can think to say about the senior leadership of late is that at least Barney's sweetie tried to make an honest dollar without leaning on our dime.

Republicans? Don't think you get out of this. You've been way out in front when it comes to shredding our Fourth Amendment at least as long as I've been alive, and then had the indescribable gall to pull out your stupid little thesaurus to make up an acronym for "Patriot" to name the last go round.

Darling Congress? I don't quite know how to tell you this, but the real patriots, the ones from '76? Yeah... if they were still around, you would have been begging for something as gentle as tar and feathers after that stunt.

so...
*sigh*
one...
two...
three..
fou...#@$k it.

All this talk about partisan bickering and ill tempers in Washington, some people would say it would be nice if you could agree about *something.*

Well, I'm glad you're making the effort, but could you please pick something other than bankrupting our treasury and selling out our frickin' national sovereignty?!?!?

At least it's not all swords and daggers in the halls, right? But... oh.. wait..no... I forgot. things. You can Twoalso agree on hiding your own names from a declaration of war when the shooting starts, so that you can demand glory while it's going well, but keep the luxury of playing the "but I didn't mean the resolution that way" game once the casualty count starts up.

Heck, let's go one more. Quite frankly dear?

If we still paid any attention to that document you all pledged to honor and obey, not a few of you would have been hanged for treason decades ago.


Yeah. So.
Let me get serious here for a minute.

Between the lot of you, you have managed to nearly completely delegitimize your institution. Not right wing talking heads. Not left wing talking heads. You. If you had comported yourselves with the barest shreds of common decency, integrity, and modesty there would be no stories to report, now would there?

Now... given the colossal ignorance and historical illiteracy that spills out of your chambers every day, I suppose we can't really expect you to grasp the consequences of frickin' lunchroom whisper campaigns and mangling the delicate balance of enumerated powers.


So let me spell it out.

The law will continue to be respected only so long as you are respectable.

In the best of times you've been a riotous mess of self-interested duplicity. Now is not the best of times... and you've become such a disgrace that you risk discrediting not only yourselves, but the very notion of popular government. (Hint.. the guys who spent a summer compromising out all those details, fallible as they were, were a hell of a lot smarter and well grounded in the end of empires than you are. You might want to look at why things were set up one way or another before presuming you know better)

But no... it's elected bodies like you that made frickin' despots look like a step up... and the last time we tried that mankind didn't see the light of freedom again for a thousand years. We narrowly avoided that road sixty-odd years ago, but like a dog to its vomit...

So that's the stage we're starting from.


Now honestly... I won't say "534 to go," because I think Lot can still find a few decent souls in the stinking mess you've made of our halls.
... I wouldn't count on many at this point, but I'm sure there's some.


So tell you what.

You police your own to the standard of every day decency the rest of us try to live under, vote to force your selves and your households to abide under every one of the laws and obligations you saddle us with, renounce those cushy pensions and perks for life, pledge to do your service and come home like Cincinnatus after a few terms instead of setting yourselves up as a wannabe lifetime aristocracy - and just maybe study to understand that document you pledged yourselves to support and defend.. and then maybe I'll join the Arlington police in getting all bent out of shape when one guy is callous to the grieving on his blog.

... 'cause right now I can't say as I blame him.
I'm sad for a few families, yes.

.. but I'm heartbroken for my country.