By Carl Sampson
A lot of people make New Year’s resolutions to do all sorts of good things — lose weight, clean out their closets, start exercising or floss their teeth more than once a month.
My resolution is similar to those, but easier. I’m going through all of my Facebook friends and “unfriending” the politicians. I’ve about had it with the self-aggrandizing, self-promoting, self-delusion these folks post on Facebook. It only goes to show their general light-headedness.
“This is me standing next to total strangers. Aren’t they lucky?”
“This is me at Disney World.”
“This is me at the Capitol.”
“This is just me… Aren’t I great?”
Well, in point of fact, no.
In point of fact, I don’t think much of the way politicians do business these days, especially at the Federal level. I shudder every time I look at those people parading around as though they’re God’s gift to humanity. If I were them, I’d hide my face in shame, not strut around like a peacock. They can’t write a budget that balances and they can’t pass a health care law that’s worth a darn. They can’t get us the heck out of Afghanistan — after how many years? Let’s go. What are we waiting for?
As a group, the crew in Washington can’t do much of anything except heat up the air.
The only thing that’s worse than politicians on Facebook is the backseat drivers. Every time President Obama says something one side sprays Facebook with comments to the effect that he’s the stupidest president since, well, the last stupid president. At the same time, the other side comes along and says he’s the greatest leader since George Washington.
I doubt any of these folks could carry President Washington’s briefcase, or whatever it was they carried in those days. And yet there they are, crowing about every little thing they did and fawning over themselves for their supposed good works.
So for the past month I’ve been “unfriending” all of them. I originally thought I would get some insight into our nation’s leaders by following them on Facebook. I thought I could get a glance of the great thoughts they had that would propel us into the future. All I have seen is the smallness of these people who would do anything for someone with a big enough checkbook.
Last month, a friend suggested I watch a movie called Idiocracy. It’s about two people who go into the future as part of a military experiment. It’s a terrible movie, but probably too accurate. What they find when they get there is a public and political leaders who are morons. They’re uneducated. They can’t think. They have no clue about art, music — or anything else, for that matter.
As I watched the movie, I came to the conclusion that we are headed in that direction, faster than the movie’s producers ever could have imagined.
Maybe the humorist Will Rogers said it best about politicians: “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
