Two weeks ago I visited a friend in Washington D.C. for some R & R.
Staying just a 5-10 minute walk from the big white obelisk was a real trip. My friend used to work for Congress and the Senate but now works for a think tank and is a T.V. talking head, book author and Op-Ed writer on defense with a heavy anti-war slant. "Nothing fattens big government like war," he likes to point out. He says even some big right-wing-hated New Deal agencies were simply converted fat WWI agencies renamed and led by the same blokes retitled.
But enough of that prattle. I was on vacation.
Walking around D.C. made me think of the eye of a hurricane. It's so calm there. Everyone is 100% about the business of politics. Consultants, politicians, staff, lobbyists and bureaucrats all shuffle along in nearly identical suits calculating spin. In D.C., master’s degrees and PhDs are a dime a dozen and mostly in suspect soft fields unworthy of an ounce of extra political power, as Ivy-Leagued PhD neocons and others so thoroughly proved. Having an advanced degree has no bearing on having one's head stuck up one's ass. If you're head-ass stuck before earning an advanced degree, you'll likely be after.
Politics, life and death mean nothing to a spinning hurricane, and in the calm of the eye of hurricane D.C. I lost all sense of political turmoil. Maybe Berlin felt like this in 1941 when Germany was at the top of its game.
I found the dearth of bumper stickers in and around D.C. interesting, too, but understandable. Passion for issues is useless for its workers and residents since only two priorities exist there: staying in power and exercising power to stay in power. In a modern western country not under martial law, this means spin -- not obsessing about issues.
Because no one can feel the effects of a hurricane while in its eye, in D.C. angry letters and phone calls and lost elections are the only ways the vast majority of politicians can feel even a breezy fraction of the tempest. And all while corporate lobbyists relentlessly direct steady gale force winds at our reps.
Over the last 15 or so years, my friend in D.C. met with many Senators and House members when he worked for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressional Budget Office and the U.S. General Accounting Office. He also met with higher-ups in Clinton's administration and in Bush Jr’s to a lesser extent. He said the only Senator or House member he's met who seems principled is Ron Paul, with the rest ranging from completely cynical to just mildly cynical.
My friend is an atheist and pro-choice but still greatly favors Ron Paul. Edwards and Obama are his other favorites.
Personally, I'd vote for Obama or Edwards over Ron Paul, but I would not vote for Clinton over Paul. This doesn't really matter since Ron Paul won’t win the Republican nomination and is really only in the game to voice dissent about the Iraq war and domestic erosion of civil liberties.
Disclaimers:
Ron Paul asked my friend to serve in his government in the off chance Paul wins; I haven't given money to Paul but gave to Obama. I want to vote for Hillary just to spite crazy right-wingers I know who obsess about her, but her corporate cronyism is too much for me. It was her hubby's similar cronyism that caused Nader to jump in and many Dems to vote Green in 2000. That may happen again if Clinton gets the nomination.
P.S. In lieu of a better baseball team, the Nationals could have better concessionaires.