136 Politics

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I was often accused of being naive about politics and I plead guilty. I simply believed the specious descriptions of the American experience I was taught in grade school, secondary school, college, church, civic holidays, media, peers, and all the other venues where the mythology of political idealism is propagated. The political system, it was implied, can be dirty but everyone has America’s best interest at heart. Well, I have now been in the political maelstrom long enough to re-calibrate: politics is a spoils system, nothing more. It is surrounded with pretensions, enveloped by ideology, and shrouded in patriotism, but the reality is infinitely baser: politics is vanity mixed with selfish profiteering. Historically, politics in the U.S. was unabashedly corrupt, each Party vying for control to exploit the system. Over time, however, reformers have forced corruption into the shadows, such that only glimpses of the underbelly hit our newsfeeds.</p> <p>Ironically, a Party's triumph is its own downfall. When a group prevails, it carves up and distributes the rewards to its self-interested constituents. Soon afterwards the veil is lifted and public envy & resentment causes the tide to turn to the other Party, so that power is never quite consolidated. In fact, it seems the actual achievement of politics is not to provide efficient and honest government, but to prevent armed revolution. That alone is worth the trouble.</p>