oink oink oink, piggies at the trough

re: http://select.nytimes.com/2006/06/15/opinion/15brooks.html

Mr. Brooks--

1. If you combined the two parties you just described together, THAT would be my party. All I want is an effective government that does its job.

2. The problem is that our government has become a piggy bank that is manipulated by an plutocracy for its own benefit, rather than a represenation of the people's will. It doesn't take much effort to find countless examples on both sides of the present aisle -- the guy in New Orleans with cash in the freezer (so gangster!) or Rep. Hastert, who just pocketed $1.5 million via his role in federal highway funding (read more here).

Guys like you and me -- white, educated, smarter than the filthy rich because we have to work for our money -- make up a minority of this country. Politics is going more and more towards Ann Coulter and further and further away from sensible discourse regarding issues.

Ultimately the American electorate is to blame for our present sorry political landscape. It is our job as citizens to vote the bastards out of office. Oh, wait, that brings me to the next point: your vote may not count if you live in a city and are a minority.

While you advocate for the political party landscape I dream of, Republican lawyers and activists are intimidating voters, skewing voting districts, circumventing the rule of law, arbitrarily putting people in jail, spying on Americans, and generally acting like a military junta. They are destroying everything America means to me: hard work, fairness, freedom, and opportunity.

Bush exemplifies everything people hate about the rich: he's never worked hard, he's never known fairness (the odds are always stacked so that he always walks away, no harm done), he's never struggled for an opportunity, and he has no idea what it feels like to lose your freedom -- especially for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Why do those who resemble him the least vote for his party?

I mention all this because the faith of the American people in their political system is far, far lower than it ever has been. The President has committed far more impeachable offenses than Nixon ever did, but more people vote for American Idol than for the President. Citizens should be utilizing every tool available to rebel against this tyranny we are living under. But the Republicans have so effectively quashed dissent that people are afraid.

New political parties might matter to you and me, but if your vote doesn't really count and all your elected officials do is feed at the trough of federal pork... why bother?