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It's truly saddening that the political discourse in this country has degraded to such a basal level. Most people would rather throw their middle fingers up high at elected officials than shake their hand and thank them for their service to their country and its citizenry. Local to national officials alike all are viewed first (and at best) as having potential then as villains if merely one vote isn't to our liking or if one quote is spread around after being taken out of context.

Is this a partisan left, right, center, green, etc. issue or does it go deeper than that? My vote is for the latter with my hypothesis being that everyone hates their parents. C'mon, admit it! Even if only partially, at some point or on some plane you feel some form of loathing for the first authorities you knew in your life. And that's truly the issue, authority. For nearly the first two decades in most of our lives our choices are looked over, if not limited, by these people who may mean well but still never quite seem to do what we want to please us.

But politicians could easily be seen as worse mainly because, not only are they authorities, but we picked them! At least with mothers and fathers, as the old saying/excuse goes, you can't choose 'em, it takes the responsibility out of our hands. But when we vote we then become disappointed in a politician because, instead of taking responsibility for how we cast our ballot, we deflect that responsibility onto them so we can feel better about ourselves. Heaven forbid we own up to our choices! Instead, we'd rather stand by and, like that oft-persecuted child to our parents, point a finger and claim that he/she (not I!) did it.

If you're still with me and rolling along with this analogy, I offer this single example to perhaps instill a modicum of sympathy, and maybe even respect, for our elected officials. Imagine politicians are our parents. But not just our parents, parents to hundreds, thousands, or millions of children all at once. Now imagine that, since we all obviously want dinner, they have to decide what's going to be on the table tonight. And, finally, add in the fact that these parents are trying to do all this for all of us with a reality TV show camera crew following their every move.

Seems to me this all makes species who eat some of their young pretty appealing.

K^F