How Deep Is......

Wasn't it the Bee Gees or some such group that sang, "How deep is the Swamp," er "your love?"  I was reminded of that, the deepness of the Swamp in DC this week with the announcement from Paul Ryan that he wouldn't seek re-election. 

My initial reaction was, "Good!  Let's get rid of another one of those guys who stabbed his constituents in the back."  But I took a measure of my reaction and have a different, somewhat different, take on this.  Again, I might be wrong, but......

I think Ryan is a good man, a decent guy who intended to do what's right.  No doubt he made some difference.  For instance, it was Ryan not Trump who brought about the recent tax cuts.  (My mind is still not made up about that one.  I see many folks and businesses who have apparently profited from the coming tax cuts.  So far I don't appear to be one of them.  I'll know more this time next year.)  Ryan's plans (beginning in 2011) to balance the federal budget were well-thought, if not universally popular.

Paul Ryan is a smart guy, very intelligent.  But I think he was caught in the wrong place--that is the Swamp.  Ryan is an idea guy, a policy wonk.  But, esp in his position as Speaker, he was required to forgo his strengths and become, well, a politician.  He began to try to form consensus, coalitions, etc.  Those terms resurfaced, "reach across the aisle," "bipartisanship," etc.  It remained, though, that such efforts were incumbent on just one of the two parties, not the other.  

So Ryan, as Speaker, was forced to abandon his strengths.  A good man, a bright one, was swallowed up by the Swamp and became a liability, a detriment.  

Do I buy his reasons for resigning?  Maybe.  Surely life as a Congressman is not particularly conducive to family life.  It's even less so as Speaker.  I understand Ryan's explanation.  But I also think he realizes, although he'll never admit it, that he became part of the Swamp.  And he found that to be very troublesome.  (Of course, I'm speculating.  I have no pipeline to Ryan's innermost thoughts.)  It's as if he asked himself, "What have I become?" and he didn't like the answer.  There is also some talk that he also knows the mess that has been created, in part by him, and he doesn't want to be around when it really hits the fan.  Maybe.  Perhaps, too, he doesn't want to be associated with a political party which has as its nominal head one such as Don Trump.  Again, I'm speculating.

But the lesson is this.  The DC Swamp is deep.  We have allowed it to become so.  There's nobody "draining" it.  I'm not sure at this point if it can be drained.  Ryan's exit tells me that he sees neither party willing to try to get rid of the morass.  And the Swamp has swallowed a good man in Paul Ryan. 

When are people going to get tired of being lied to?  I was sent a clip from the movie Network (which I've never seen) in which some newscaster on air pleads with viewers to go to their windows and doors and scream, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more."  I wonder when people today will, if ever, reach that point with all of the lies they are told.  We are bombarded with lies, from politicians and other government-types, from the media, from corporations.  The lies come on a grand scale, the national level, and on lesser, state and local, levels.  I wonder if some of the liars realize they are lying or if they are just following the script/agenda they are told to follow.  But some of them are bold enough to admit they lie, but, of course, for a greater good, at least greater in their eyes.  It's not just the morality of lying (If our leaders lie, lie, lie, what sort of role-modeling is that for others, esp our young?  "Hey, our President(s) lie(s). Why can't I?"), but the detriment of no longer knowing who and what to believe.  I suppose the liars have learned as long as people get their "stuff," what the Romans provided as "bread and circuses," the lies can continue.

I never heard of that so-called comedienne who ripped on the President's press secretary at the recent dinner for the press corps.  She was certainly out of order and, if the little bit I heard is representative, I wonder how she makes a living in comedy.  In my view, when she started in on that, it was time for everyone to walk out.  That few if any did tells me a lot about that press corps, esp the big-names.  Perhaps I expect too much, integrity from people.  After all, shame has disappeared for many, if not most, people.  What I also found interesting was that the people who seemed to be most upset at all of this are Trumpsters!  Ha Ha Ha......

That Fresno State professor who made those cruel and nasty comments about Barbara Bush upon her death should be fired--post haste!  No, tenure doesn't and shouldn't protect her.  Some ding-a-ling from the U of M had a letter-to-the-editor defending the twits/tweets as an extension of tenure.  He is all wet.  Tenure protects--and should protect--professors in the classroom, not their personal rants.  I've read about professors on some college campuses who are conservatives and even voted for Trump, but are leery, if not afraid, to publicly admit it.  They fear shunning, ostracism from their colleagues.  How interesting that this loon from California is defended, not shunned and ostracized, by fellow professors.  Like the press corps that didn't walk out, they tell me a lot about themselves.  I can't believe they would want to have someone like her in their profession.  We live in strange times.