I’ll be the first to admit that I’m somewhat of a pessimist when it comes to the direction that our politicians, those men and women we have chosen to represent us to the world, are taking this great country of ours. You don’t have to be Edgar Cayce to prophesy that these fine men and women are lying to us. Of course, it doesn’t take a social sciences degree to figure out that we, as a culture, really don’t care that we’re being lied to. Those highly paid professionals in Washington, D.C., are lying by omission to all of us about what can be done to get our culture, economy, and external affairs back into the order that is required of the world’s one and only superpower. And we don’t care about that, either.

Culturally, I do agree with the religious right when they say that we are completely culturally bankrupt. Of course where those religious nutjobs and I disagree is in the details. The devil’s in those, they say, which is why they just ignore them. We (the homos) are told that giving us the rights that we want would do nothing but further the underlying rot that has been growing under our skins for decades. Their hypocritical sanctimony is an intransigent recognition of their inability to solve problems in life without defining an enemy of their faith and then dragooning that perceived enemy under the boot of ‘moral authority.’ The fact that no one in Washington D.C. is saying anything negative about this minority (and believe me, the religious right is a minority, at least in number) is an augur of how little interest politicians have in actually leading or representing.

And does anyone ever talk about the poor anymore as anything but a blight? Protect the needy my ass.

The one issue that both sides of the aisle seem to agree on is that our economy seems to have some interesting issues going on. The first is that the chasm between the rich and the poor is enlarging with dramatic flair, though the Dems and Reps might disagree both with how to fix this, and whether or not it needs fixing–but they both act with aplomb when it comes to actually speaking about it. If you’re Barack Obama, since you’re running for office you say that this economic schism is a horrible thing and it is the lower classes (by the way, Obama is rated as the 50th richest Senator in Washington, with a net worth between $1,100,008 and $2,500,000–so you know who he considers the lower class) who drive this economy, and the Democrats are working hard to raise the minimum wage, keep jobs in America rather than shipped overseas, giving college tuition tax breaks, and ‘fiscal responsibility’ that doesn’t saddle the next generations with a huge deficit. And if you’re John McCain (again, full disclosure here: Old John is worth between $25,071,142 and $38,043,014 with assets reaching into the mid $40s), you talk about lowering taxes, and reforming lobbying and ethics in Washington. Where these two guys meet up is in their seemingly-heartfelt desire to lower taxes.

Lowering taxes has been the mainstay for presidential nominees for as long as I can research. No one likes paying taxes, everyone thinks they pay too much, and it’s up to these fat cats in D.C. to give us our due. Unfortunately, since this has been the topic for the past decades, you’d think that someone would have fixed it by now.

There’s the rub–politicians don’t want to fix things. Remember, they talk about the homeless, they harp on high taxes, and claim that the vast majority of Americans are, indeed, the stewards of this great nation and our “rich national heritage” as McCain’s website says. I guess it takes 200+ years to actually do something about that tax bill, though. Neither Obama nor McCain want to fix these problems that are plaguing America. Just imagine the turmoil if they did–what the hell would they run on in 4 more years? The environment? Ask Al Gore how well that works.

Internally we’re obviously wedged between the folds of America’s half-witted attempt to appear to be a grown-up nation, but when it comes to stuff that happens outside our border, we the people enjoy our lies there, too.

“We’re winning the war in Vietnam.” “We’re not trading arms for hostages.” “There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.” I don’t think I have to explain why our Where’s Waldo approach towards foreign policy might be a bit misguided. If only this were a new phenomenon. We’ve been throwing the kitchen sink at every problem outside our borders since long before I was born. Initially, the all-too-malleable culture of ours turns red, white, and blue, supporting the President and all his decisions. We chant and scowl at the bad men, and put our hands over our hearts. Then we get bored of that, get distracted by something else, and go picketing for a little while. Finally, we get bored of physical activity altogether and we forget we’re doing anything in someone else’s country. Iraq is a hot button issue. In January 2009, we won’t hear a peep.

In the end, that’s what we want: polite politicians who will leave us alone. And that’s exactly what we’re getting. Are you happy? Me neither.