Burnout

OK, so it finally happened. I'm toast.

I have had all I can stand of Sarah Palin, John McCain, that Ayers guy, Reverend Wright, the Keating Five and everything else. I am utterly disgusted and fed up. I do not believe that the press is independently investigating a damned thing. I am convinced that they are nearly a mindless herd, dashing from one shiny, sparkly thing to the next, easily distracted until there is something really good, like sex, on which to focus incessantly.

I am disgusted with the American electorate. For the most part, I think people are sheep who believe whatever they are fed so long as it does not require thinking. Thinking is viewed with suspicion and distrust. People who think are called "elite" and "uppity." Politics has been reduced to chants in high school gymnasiums. "Drill, baby drill" has usurped "yes we can" in the American psyche. It both scares and saddens me.

We are a nation founded by very smart men. Washington, Jefferson, Adams (I and II) and that whole crowd had a keen sense of history, of what kind of monumental thing they were undertaking, and they understood, or at least read and studied, the philosophers of old. The Greeks, the Romans, the ancients. They understood that the masses were led by the smart ones, and that it was their grave and solemn duty to lead responsibly. They understood that theirs was not a position from which to garner personal gain, but a position of stewardship. It was their responsibility, and that of the government they created, to provide safety and security to those whom they sought to govern.

I don't see that kind of stewardship today. I see the mob taking over. It is as though the elites have wrung every last drop of profit to be had from the system and are now boarding the last plane out of Dodge. It strikes me that they are behind the scenes on the sinking ship, packing up the last of their belongings while occasionally appearing for long enough to whip the crowd into a renewed frenzy before ducking back behind the curtain to pack some more.

I get the feeling that on November 5, many of the people pulling the strings will quietly disappear to the safety of offshore holdings and leave America, raped, burned and barren, to the rest of us. The two candidates now fighting for the top spot will be two levels of loser. The young guy will be loser number one, the guy with the empty prize - a nation with pillaged coffers, looted resources and crumbling infrastructure. The old guy will be the lower grade of loser, having been sold the dream that his wealthy friends were going to stick with him when it was over. He'll be the guy stood up by his prom date only to find his wallet stolen and not enough in his pocket for cab fare home. He'll retire to one of his estates with his anger and his frigid wife for company and slowly (or not so slowly) drink himself into oblivion. He may try to rally his forces in the Senate, but will be the one whispered about by the others, ridiculed for believing he still holds some kind of power. Having sold out all of his principles in pursuit of the brass ring, he will be an empty shell of a man. A few kindly, senior members may still invite him to lunch occasionally, but it will be for the sad ritualistic recital of how it was "in the old days."

I have voted already, and that is good. I do not know if I had to endure three more weeks of this shit if I could still find the energy at the end to mark a box on a piece of paper. I am frazzled. I have heard it all, read it all, gotten angry about it all, railed against the injustice and finally collapsed. I wonder if that is the opposition's strategy - to wear the thinking ones among us down with their relentless onslaught of crap. It could be.

For me, for today, I will enjoy the sunshine and the foliage. I will go outdoors and look around and find beauty where I am. I may take my little dog for a walk. I may watch some football. I'll go to the grocery store and I'll make some lunch. But for today, I will not engage about politics. There is nothing more for me to offer. I am spent.