As I enter my last term as a college student, and subsequently, my last term as a columnist, I have reached a point in my life that I never thought I would reach.
I am sick of politics.
I feel terrible about this, but it is true. It’s not just the lack of inspiring politicians out there, although it would be nice if there were some President Bartlett figure a la “The West Wing” to prove to me once a week that the system really does do some good. Not even the good vs. evil of our political debate is fun anymore. I realized it Tuesday morning when I heard that Tom DeLay had resigned, and I didn’t even care. I’m sure there are progressive people all over America waking up with a mimosa to celebrate the final fall of a man who has become the face of Republican corruption. But I just sat there wondering who the Texas Republicans would produce to beat Democratic challenger Nick Lampson. DeLay sn’t resigning because he has been caught red-handed violating ethics codes or because his staff members are pleading guilty to taking bribes. He is not resigning in shame for making a mockery out of the system I used to believe so much in; he’s just bowing out of a race he can’t win.
It did cheer me up, however, to hear NPR’s Andrea Seabrook scored an interview with DeLay while she was waiting around for jury duty. She’s just hanging out at the courthouse with some coffee and a Washington Post, reads about DeLay, and figures, “Hey I’ll give him call, maybe I’ll get an interview,” and sure enough, she does. At least I haven’t lost my faith in journalists. Well, not all of them.
Some of those journalists just fall right into the sensationalist trap of politics as usual. For example, the current illegal immigration debate ignores the root causes of illegal immigration and seeks instead to cure the symptoms of two very sick nations. The mass media has yet to take a look at the big picture.
A giant wall between Mexico and the United States will not do much except hurt the natural habitat of the desert. Criminalizing illegal immigrants will do nothing but create a use for the giant detention centers Halliburton has been contracted to build inside the United States’ borders. (Check out Homeland Security’s 2003 ENDGAME plan if you want to learn more, which strives for “100 percent removal” of illegal aliens). Allowing illegals to continue working here will keep pushing American workers’ wages down. The real problems at hand include Mexico’s dreadful economy, which we had a hand in hurting when we eliminated tariffs but not subsidies with the 1992 NAFTA. Also, the labor movement in America is practically nonexistent, so we hear little debate coming from that arena. Great American hero and namesake of what used to be Army St. in San Francisco, Cesar Chavez, fought against illegal immigration because he knew that cheap labor would take jobs away from American union workers. The United States’ economy will not collapse if we pay our citizens a living wage rather than illegal immigrants peanuts.
In Oregon, we face a commercial disaster because of this same ignore-the-problem-treat-the-symptoms condition. Closing the salmon fisheries off the coast is the easiest quick-fix for a much larger problem. Trollers in international waters off our coast, polluted habitat, dammed rivers and other factors are the real causes of the dwindling fish population, not just fishermen. But because the big problem is too difficult to solve, and something must be done, the people at the bottom suffer the consequences.
Why is it like this?
It actually reminds me of those direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements I see on TV all the time. “For the rest of your life, take this pill every day to lower your blood pressure/reduce acid reflux/make your legs less restless blah blah blah-“
The political pill, however, gets a little harder to swallow every day.
Politicians are lackluster at best. The left keeps leaning to the right, and the lefties that speak up get no support from their colleagues. The right is too far right and appears to be eating itself alive these days, which gives the Democrats an opportunity, which they use to put forth a tough new security plan that is really nothing short of common sense. Since when are ideas like being prepared for natural disasters and inspecting cargo at ports revolutionary? The legislation they work together to pass turns out disastrous, like the unfunded No Child Left
Behind, or the Medicare Part D disaster that appears to have been designed so that only aging rocket scientists can figure it out. What exactly are they doing on Capitol Hill?
Basically, the whole system has me feeling very icky lately. The House of Representatives will work about 97 days this year, last I heard. Imagine how much damage they could do if they showed up at the office as many days as a regular American worker does each year.

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