Bloodless Coup

Hell, I'll admit I missed it (I certainly knew the hearing were around somewhere); however, I'm no Senator, and I have no staff to let me know about these things.

I'm becoming more and more depressed with the state of politics these days. I don't think tonight's SotU is going to help.

Is it that politics sucks more these days, or that the illusions we bought into once upon a time are harder to sustain (whether because we're older and wiser or because of the advent of the internet)?

I vote for older and more cynical, er, wiser.

I vote Yes and Yes.

And George Allen (delenda est) is a wanker.

I agree, sort of. Our illusions are harder to sustain (well, for those of us who are remotely interested in critical thinking - not just in reveling in some feel-good emotion despite clear evidence it's based on something false).

As to the other part though - it's not that politics is in general "worse". There have always been incompetents and corrupt people around. It's that of late much of the country has simply decided that competence isn't important - or not something that's going to necessarily move their votes. And we have "honorable and dignified" (cough, cough) people in charge who refuse to hold people (including themselves) accountable and responsible for failure after failure - and in fact give them medals for their supposedly great service to the country. I think that is somewhat different than things were a decade or two or three ago. And actually I think it's one sign of the times that I think, gigantic amounts of hot air to the contrary, I don't think people take the war on terrah nearly as seriously as they did the Cold War. And understandably. I don't think people would so blithely accept/celebrate incompetency if we weren't the undisputed superpower.