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I haven't posted anything political in a while, and since that's pretty much going to be my job in a few weeks, I figure now is a good a time as any to keep my skills sharpened.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the American political system and the game of politics in general. See, I'm a political purist. I believe that given the proper information, the institution of democracy will function correctly and people will make the right choice. This doesn't bode well for me as I'm moving to Washington DC...the land of lobbyists, misinformation and political corruption. I'll probably be disillusioned in...oh, I dunno, I'm guessing just a shade under 3 seconds.

At any rate...the current state of affairs in American politics is pretty depressing. There's a lot of bickering, misrepresentation, and opposition for the sake of opposition. Not only that, but with increasing frequency, too many politicians and their associates are simply wrong. To me, this raises the question...at what point do we stop listening to these morons?

Exhibit A: House majority leader Tom DeLay has been repeatedly accused of ethics violations. However, he has repeatedly offered to produce evidence to prove he has not. What's more, when asked just exactly which ethics law was violated, those making the accusations metaphorically look at the ground and shuffle their collective feet.

Exhibit B: UN Ambassador Nominee John Bolton has had one of the most intense confirmation hearings in history, and the only discernible reason is because he yells at people and doesn't like the UN. Doesn't like the UN? All that means is that he reflects the average American. Some 80% of Americans don't trust the UN. And so what if he yells at people? What, do we want someone to go to the UN and be nice to France, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, etc? We see how well that's served us in the past.

Exhibit C: When Social Security was founded in 1935, there were some 50 workers for every retiree, and the retirement age was 65...that wouldn't be a big deal if the average life expectancy wasn't 62 years. 62! That means the average person had been dead for 3 years before they were even eligible to collect their benefits. That's like raising the retirement age to 80. At any rate, currently there's a little more than 3 workers for every retiree, and the number will only decline. There's a problem! It needs to be fixed. All democrats have done is vow not to change it, and hugged FDR's statue. Way to go. That'll solve it.

Exhibit D: Shockingly similar to the Tom DeLay scenario, several of President Bush's judicial nominees have been accused of being 'right-winged extremists', but when asked for examples of such extremism, the accusers fall strangely silent. But yet a small faction of senators refuse to even allow a vote either way on these people. And a tactic that would require a vote and allow the majority opinion to rule in a democracy has become known as the 'nuclear option'. Since when is it unreasonable to ask a senator to...well, do their job?

Exhibit E: Pretty much every prediction made about the Iraq war has been proven wrong. 'It'll just be another Vietnam!' Well, in terms of casualties, since the invasion began a little over 2 years ago, right around 2000 Americans have been killed. At this rate, we'd have to maintain that rate for the next 56 years to reach the toll of Vietnam. Naturally, it's a tragedy any time an American soldier is killed in action, but to compare Iraq to Vietnam is just simply inaccurate. 'The elections either won't take place or will be postponed!' They were right on time. 'The elections will be a disaster!' 8 million people voted. 'Even if the elections do take place, the Iraqis will elect an Muslim extremist government, the Shiites will use their majority status to exclude the Sunnis and Kurds, and a civil war will break out!' No, no, and no.

Exhibit F: Going back in history a bit, Democrats well terrified by Ronald Reagan because he was supposedly going to get us all vaporized by increasing our nuclear arms. Well, turns out he caused the USSR to spend itself into bankruptcy, and we're no longer under the threat of WWIII at a moment's notice.

Exhibit G: Slightly before that, President Jimmy Carter (what a source of Georgian pride he was) wanted Americans to accept the fact that America's best days were behind her, and we should get used to the idea of, well, pretty much sucking from here on out. Oops. Wrong again.

Exhibit H: Pretty much anytime communism has been tried, it's failed miserably. Check out the Worker's Paradise of North Korea. What a utopia that is. The USSR? Oh that's right...we already covered that... China? You can't even call that economy communist anymore. The same goes for socialism. Look at Europe. 50% income taxes, rampant unemployment, and a floundering economy. Can we please admit that it's not working?

I could go on, but you get the idea. These people are repeatedly wrong, and drastically so, yet they're still listened to like they still know what they're talking about. It really annoys me because these idiots teach this crap to their children and unsuspecting college students, who then become idiots themselves, and the cycle continues until eventually the American populous and government is full of spineless, brainless morons...oh wait...