There really isn’t any point in excerpting this particular column. It’s a grand slam. Please read it all.
Being in Congress is not like living in America. You have a hired car and driver, and you don’t carry money. You don’t buy groceries and you don’t pay plumbers. You spend every day raising money so you can go back to Congress, where you will raise more money. People want to buy you dinner, take you golfing, give you … what do you want? There are people who will give it to you, and other people who make it look OK. Unless you do something dopey like keeping cash in your freezer, you’ll never get caught.
You are supposed to represent the people in your district, but you don’t live like the people in your district. Hell, most of the time you’re not even in your district. You live in a bubble, and you take seriously stuff that other people find silly, and you ignore stuff that other people find important. Tim Russert: important. Working two jobs while trying to find health insurance to cover your pre-existing condition: not so important.
People in Congress do not speak the way other people speak. Have you ever listened to a congressional hearing? Congress members do not ask questions when it is time to ask questions; they make speeches. Sometimes they pretend it’s a question by starting with “Wouldn’t you agree… ?” — but that doesn’t make it a question. They seem to be utterly indifferent to their routine pomposities. They frequently call themselves “the American people,” as in, “The American people are shocked by midnight break-ins at congressional offices.”
And:
Basically, we’re screwed. The Congress was supposed to save us from the executive branch, and the Supreme Court was supposed to save us from both, and now all three are playing some game that does not involve protecting citizens, spending money wisely or making sense.
I miss the good ol days of Monica and Hans and Saddam. If you extrapolate 5 years from now –
we’ll all be saying I miss the good ol days just after 9/11.
Congress is not at fault – we elected them, put up with shanigans like the debate on gay marriage starting in the Senate. WE NEED TO QUIT WHINING AND BEING THE VICTIMS AND START GETTING INVOLVED.
The HAVES don’t care – but they get out and vote – gotta have those tax cuts. The HAVE NOTS just don’t vote – they’re busy surviving or dying or in lala land about the new world order.
Every bumper in America should have Gans’s (modified) sign-off on his show – Get involved and vote!! – your life will depend on it.
We’re the ones that have been living in the bubble and let this stuff happen. I hope we wake up.
Eric Alterman was on CSPAN the other day talking about the “good old days” of Ronald Reagan. “Imagine,” he said. “Someone pining for the days of Reagan.”
Sad, ain’t it?