Denial, Decadence, & Corruption in the halls of Washington Begins Within Us

Speaker of the House (R) OH John Boehner

Senator Ben Nelson (D) NE

Senator Chris Dodd (D) CT

Former Gov of Massachusetts Mitt Romney

It would seem to me that we Americans live in an age of denial and decadence. Our elected officials on the federal level are faced with the looming predicament of a government shutdown http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_shutdown feel free to do your own research on what it is entails. Yet, those elected officials still plan on getting their full paycheck, on time. Patriotism is more than wearing a flag pin on your lapel, or using the words "freedom" & "liberty" repeatedly in speeches. It is being an elected official and remembering the lives of your constituents, and sacrificing when they have had to do so themselves. Politicians are apart of the upper class of American life, having access to the richest and most powerful people, not just in the nation, but sometimes on the planet.
As an American, I must admit my own failings as a citizen. Most of the things that go on in government, the deals that get done, the people involved, the details of the issues, I know very little about. Which is why I can say that I am just another American living in denial of how my government works. It is truly my government, just as it is yours, assuming you are an American citizen reading this blog post. When I say my government and yours, I mean to say that the people elected are not elected by some intangible "they" or people from the other political party. We, the America people, of which ever district, have elected this person to represent us in Washington DC or a local area. We each have to own up to the decision to send that person to be our voice. If you disagree with the choice, you should try again, at the ballot box.

Senator Ben Nelson (D) NE at National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors speaking AGAINST healthcare reform to his friends in INSURANCE industry

Senator Chris Dodd (D) CT photoshopped here with Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide who helped him get houses at arguably unethical discounts. Certainly discounts CT residents could not have gotten on their own

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R) OH pictured here at a golf course, well dressed, well fed, and well tanned. Must be hard to stay so tanned year round in Ohio. Does this man look like he represents the people you know in Ohio?

It would also seem to me, that we Americans live in an age of decadence. This is not novel or unexpected of the lives of citizens fortunate enough to exist in an empire. If only we take a brief look at the history of Rome, Greece, Arabia, Persia, & Egypt we will see decadence inevitably layered on the surface of their stories. Time and the accessibility of knowledge present Americans with a series of questions in regards to the future of our own empire. Today, I will try to get us to focus on decadence. The word decadence may conjure images of luxurious material items, or excessive wealth, which our great country, and it's people are fortunate enough to have in abundance. Even the poor in the inner-city have, especially in comparison to the rest of the world's poor. You can't get on public transportation without seeing at least 5 people with Nike sneakers costing close to if not more than one hundred dollars per pair. Still, that decadence pales in comparison to the amount of money spent on paying politicians that don't represent your community when they get to DC. Why pay a person to go to DC and spend most of their time making deals with those much richer than you, or I? Why pay a person to only pretend to work for you when election time rolls around? Why pay a person that prefers to craft a message of manipulation only to get your vote? 100 thousand dollars to the man or woman that best pretends to care for their fellow community members, all it takes is a nice suit, painted on smile, and saying what the party tells you to say, or the words that sound best to the voter. Congress has a plethora of these people as we speak, I'd argue most of them. Time to stop watching Snooki, and start watching C-Span, now there is something worth taxpayer dollars.