Blue Collar Muse

Ronald Reagan said “Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.” Normally I don’t put much stock in clever sayings. But after this week, I have to say Reagan, as is becoming increasingly clear, was a pretty sharp cookie for being such an amiable dunce.

I grew up in the 60s and heard it all. Free love! Tune in, turn on and drop out! If it feels good, do it! Baby Killer! No prayer in school! The list is seemingly endless. The 60s were a time of flux, of upheaval, of sweeping moral and social changes that altered the fabric of our country. Not all those changes were for the better.

Women were emancipated. The burned bras, pursued equal rights, left home in droves to pursue careers, took responsibility for their own orgasms and pursued the right to determine what to do with their bodies. Competing with men in the sexual arena was among the saddest freedoms women pursued. Doing so they demeaned themselves, casting the pearls of their bodies before the swine that is the base side of man’s nature. They made real what feminists claimed was true but was not. They became mere toys for men and found worth not in their character, intelligence and ability but in their sexuality. They confused themselves and their men making love synonymous with lust. Caring, long term relationships able to weather worse, sickness and poorer were discarded for the glamorous, temporary fiction that life can be better, healthy and richer at all times.

There have always been women willing to attach themselves to men and gratify his every wish in return for security. There will always be men willing to accept that offer. But the 60s made it socially acceptable for women to pursue the green pastures on the other side of the fence. Prior to that ladies would never have considered things as base as hook-ups, shack-ups or pre-nups. Not that no women did, but that self respecting ladies did not. Those who marketed themselves in this fashion were called “gold diggers”. That they were also known as whores was much more politically incorrect.

As is often the case, attitudes starting small grow to become a prevailing attitude nationwide. So it would prove with the, “I’m willing to trade my most precious possession - myself - to the highest bidder for what I want!” attitude. Power being what it is and obtained in the way it is, it took only a national heartbeat for this attitude to infect the body politic. Seemingly overnight our political process stopped being about ideas and concepts like freedom, democracy, capitalism, individual responsibility and patriotism and degenerated into relationships of convenience where both elected and electorate alike sought personal gain with no thought to what might be best for the Republic.

Today’s career politicians came of age in the 60s and were profoundly influenced by the transformation of our country. They quickly learned right or wrong mattered little. It mattered not at all if a thing was good or bad for the country. What mattered was how much did a politician need to promise and how little did he have to deliver? In a generation, we went from a country which enshrined Jack Kennedy’s words on selfless, priceless, noble service, “… ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” to a country which enshrined Bill Clinton’s words on a selfish, cheap, tawdry affair, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky!” We went from a Blue Dog Democrat in the White House to a Blue Dress Democrat in the Oval Office.

Lest you think I’m only painting the Left side of the aisle with my broad brush, let me state I’ve seen few things more illustrative of the gold digger mentality in our current political process than the recent bi-partisan Immigration Deal being touted and condemned around the country. Politicians shamelessly sacrificed our laws and national sovereignty for votes. These votes were not valued as the sacred responsibility of a concerned citizen. Rather, like poker chips, they were tossed on the table to tempt salivating Senators and conniving Congressman into trading their oath to serve others in return for a future that benefits them personally.

In this situation, it is true to a moral certainty that no one wins. Not our elected officials, not the people trying to manipulate our elected officials and not the people expecting representation from our elected officials. The Democrats make themselves even more the party of special interest groups. The GOP demonstrates even more fully that it refuses to contemplate the meaning of November, 2006. The electorate races even faster down the road of “What’s in it for me?”

Thinking that government of the whores, by the whores and for the whores doesn’t have quite the ring to it as the original …

Blue Collar Muse

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