Mini-Rant: Politics and Arguments About "Morality"

A former student of mine sent me this little article, and I feel compelled to say something.  I haven't posted much about politics because I'm so disgusted by the state of both it and its practitioners, and the persistent use of so-called "moral arguments" on all sides has been both laughable and deplorable in its utter cynicism and demonization of everyone who disagrees with (insert asinine issue du jour).  Rant follows.




POLITICS ARE NOT ABOUT MORALITY PER SE.  They shouldn't be.  I don't care who says otherwise on whatever fetid, swampy end of the political spectrum they happen to lurk. The people who shriek loudest about "morality" are always the people who are most eager to coerce you to do things "for your own good."  No thanks!

As long as I'm already ranting ... On a slightly different note, let me tell you: I cannot believe what a ridiculous flap the entire birth control nonsense has become.  Really?  Really?  The economy's in the toilet and we're deeper in debt every minute, and we're arguing about birth control and Rush Limbaugh's mouth?  It's all one big stupid distraction, and apparently everybody's fallen for it.

You want to know what's immoral?  It's immoral to saddle our children and grandchildren with an astounding amount of debt because we didn't have the guts to be honest about our spending problem.  You know what else is immoral?  Penalizing people who play by the rules in order to pay favors and bail out those who didn't.  I could go on, but I won't.  I have hundreds of pages to read this week, and I should be doing that instead of procrastinating on the Internet.  (Whatever.)

In short?  As I just said to Alessandra, "Our 'leaders' are sphincters."  This applies to both parties, so don't get smug.  The members of our political class all collectively get the "dirtbag du jour" tag.  Allow me also to quote the glorious Mark Twain, who once quipped, "Suppose you were an idiot.  And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."