Politicians as Usual

It's hard to believe it was only a year ago at this time that our nation was on the verge of something special. We were only a couple weeks away from electing our first black president, quite a feat in a country with such a mixed racial history, a country that held on to the peculiar institution of slavery longer than anyone save Brazil, but that also produced the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 60's. But more than the historical aspect of this election, it was an exciting time for a people who had been beaten down by eight years of divisive politics and disastrous policies delivered by the Bush administration. The times they were indeed a-changin'.

Or were they? And have they? Here we are a year later, and now over 9 months into the new Obama administration and what of this change we all had so much hope for? We are still bogged down in two questionable wars, one in Afghanistan with no end in sight, and another in Iraq that while no longer on the front pages is still keeping well over a hundred thousand of our soldiers away from their loved ones and lives back home. Obama's plan for Afghanistan is so far much like the rest of his political ideas, painfully undefined and non-committal. While our new president fiddles, soldiers continue to die by the scores, and all we get are the usual promises of how things will be different this time, and if we just give it a little longer, well, you've heard this song and dance before from the last administration. I wonder how many more sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters will perish before he comes out with the decision we all know is coming anyways, a nebulous commitment to more troops to fight a war with no real strategy or realistic chance at success.

How about the health care reform that had us fired up and ready to go? Our new leader showed anything but leadership in turning over such an important policy to the Congress, a body with a proven track record of getting nothing productive done, regardless of which of the two parties holds the reigns. One would think that a man supposedly as intelligent as Obama would have learned from the debacle known as the stimulus package, which followed on the heels of the misguided bank bailout, not to trust the legislative branch with the keys to the kingdom, but there he went again. What will come out of this is still up for grabs, but only the most optimistic of kool-aid drinkers can still have hope for any meaningful reform.

Ditto on the environment, where all our new president has managed is a watered down and ineffective energy bill that is akin to getting the foxes to promise to do a better job of guarding the hen house, which is exactly the same thing we are getting as it pertains to reform on Wall Street. Education reform is about as prevalent as coverage of serious issues on cable news. All the while the deficit continues to expand like Keith Olbermann's waistline or Glen Beck's fat head.

Every four years the candidate of change sells us the same line about changing the culture of Washington and ending politics as usual. The guy in office is a bum and the challenger is our white knight riding to rescue us from our own lesser angels. But every time we get sold the same bill of goods, and I can only wonder when we'll stop buying the same old song and dance and demand a new tune.

My belief in the relevance of electoral politics and the efficacy of civic participation is just about exhausted. The optimist in me wants to say that Obama needs more time, that this time things will be different, that incremental change is better than nothing at all. But the realist in me, which as I approach my fifth decade of life is increasingly kicking the optimist's rear end, tells me otherwise. I realize that my vote is but a drop of water in the ocean, and like our actual oceans, is becoming more polluted all the time. The thing is, I'm not disheartened or bitter at all, I have great anticipation and high expectations for the second half of my life. There is so much that I encounter and learn every day, the wonders of this world and the small pleasures never cease to amaze.

I just don't expect that those wonders will include political change I can ever believe in, or a politician who isn't cut from the usual cloth. Perhaps one day there will be someone worthy of my vote, but it will have to be a re-election campaign, because I am done putting my dime in the jukebox until I've heard the tune. Show me the money. If not, I'm more than happy to go about my life in search of real truth, wisdom, and enlightenment, and leave the political decisions to those who still think it matters one way or the other. I'm very close to coming to the realization and acceptance of the fact that it really doesn't, which isn't the end of the world as we know it, and yet I still feel fine.