It's Already Starting

[Yeah, it's been a while since I posted anything. I'm trying not to obsess quite so much on politics, due to a combination of disillusionment that so little changes from one party to the next (not that I really expected it to) and a general sense of the futility of tilting at windmills. Still, every once in a while I still want to say something, so here goes...]

I'm already starting to hear the Republican war machine lumber into position. People are already positioning themselves with lists of supposed infractions President Obama has committed which will justify investigations and sanctions and possibly even impeachment, and I just want to go on record as saying WTF?

Let's see. Of our last three Presidents, one committed war crimes. Torture. "Death from above" via predator drones. War fought with a mercenary army which was generally held to be above the law.

But that one wasn't impeached, because the Democrats were afraid that any serious investigation would just look retaliatory for the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

And that impeachment was for what? Some distasteful personal behaviors towards women that Presidents throughout our history have participated in. Clinton had the bad fortune to be the first President to do so in the age of the Internet and instantaneous sharing of information, combined with a coordinated Republican attack machine bent on bringing him down by hook or by crook.

(Yes, I know, technically it wasn't the sex, it was the lying about the sex, but c'mon, how many people out there have affairs? Trust me, I know a lot of them. They lie about them. They lie about them to their spouses, who have a right to know, why should we be surprised that they'd lie to everyone else, who arguably DON'T have any right to know?)

And now people on the right are talking about trying to bring down ANOTHER Democratic President with investigations and stalling and if at all possible, impeachment, and I think we need to take a good, long, hard look at whether we really want to allow such tactics to work? Like Obama or not, we voted for the man, and I think if the conduct of President Bush didn't rise to the level of high crimes and misdemenors, then there's not much Obama has done that could possibly reach that level, and so this becomes yet another attempt to thwart the will of the people and snatch power by dragging down the other side and damn the consequences to the American People when our government grinds to a halt as everyone in power focuses solely on prosecution or defense.

It's insane.

Oh, and let me point out that the Democrats aren't much better. They're not actively trying to take down the other side, they're spinelessly, snivelingly sitting back and watching, trying to not be too partisan. President Obama has been so centrist as to lose the support of most of the screaming lefties to whom he promised change he has not delivered on, and he's done that so as not to appear to be too far to the left, and what has it gotten him? There are whole legions of our countrymen on the right who believe the meme that Obama is a socialist and the most liberal President in our history. He's not even the most liberal President in my lifetime.

I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the whole lot. I'm sick of being able to tell you six moves ahead who is going to do what. I'm sick of having known, deep in my heart, that when we elected Obama and gave the Democrats the House and Senate, that they wouldn't do anything with them, afraid of being seen as partisan, and thus ending up being seen as impotent and ineffective. I'm sick of knowing that when the political pendulum swung back (as it always does), the Republicans would swing back on the attack, all the while repeating loudly that THEY aren't the partisan ones, they're simply fighting the good fight against the other side, whom they will convince a large percentage of their non-thinking followers are really the partisan ones.

And I'm sick of knowing one way we could fix the whole thing, and not having a clue as to how to even start to get it accomplished.

C'mon, folks. Someone, please, think about who you serve. Think about your country first, and politics second. Think about doing what you honestly think is right for the country, and working together with other people who are doing what they honestly think is right, and working together to figure out what combination of your conflicting policies really is the best thing, instead of firing spitballs at each other and dragging the nation down in your petty squabbles.

I'm sick of all of you!