I’m hesitant to wade into this topic but after watching interviews over the last several hours, I’m inclined to speak my mind.

A hot topic amongst several of my friend groups right now seems to be the unwillingness of Republican Party hardliners to work with their Democratic Party colleagues towards solutions for current illegal immigration crisis on the southern border. Several news stories I read this morning indicated that Donald Trump instructed his supporters to not work towards a deal with Democrats so that he can use the immigration issue as a political battering ram against the current President, Joe Biden. In fact, Senator Josh Hawley said in an interview yesterday with Laura Ingraham after she asked if “this deal is dead effectively”, that “I hope so. There is no reason to agree to policies that would further enable Joe Biden”.

Frankly, this sort of use of naked political gamesmanship in the face of an illegal immigration crisis is deplorable enough. However, once you realize that hardline members of the GOP have been using funding for Ukrainian defense as a bargaining chip for the last several months to get Democratic concessions on the matter of the border, and now as a result are unwilling to negotiate on both issues in order to give Donald Trump a weapon in the upcoming election, it’s obvious that new lows continue to be found by politicians of all stripes in order to gain power. It would be entertaining if it didn’t have disastrous implications for our country and one we have supported in their defense of their own country.

It has long seemed to me that politicians don’t actually care about the political issues they so vociferously profess their distaste or support for, they simply use those issues as a means of denigrating their political opponents to encourage a sense of fear, anger, distrust or outright hostility from their voting supporters. If their campaigns were honest, they’d simply say “vote for me or all the things you hate and fear will become your reality”. Instead they use issues like abortion, gun rights, immigration and the cost of a gallon of gas as a cover for their blatant manipulation, their disgusting desire to obtain power at any means necessary, the cost to the citizenry be damned.

What’s worse is that we buy into it.

Make no mistake, it doesn’t matter what letter you find at the end of their name, people on both ends of the political spectrum do this. There isn’t a political movement in the United States with the support of any moderately sized voting block that doesn’t participate in this sort of foolishness. So many people feel forced to participate, as if their failure to pick a side will give the side they disagree with most more power and influence than they themselves are willing to endure. The notion that “they aren’t good, but the other side is worse” has been echoed in so many varying degrees for the last 16 odd years that it is hard to remind anyone that these politicians have not just a responsibility but an oath to duty to uphold, and that using any political issue as a tool to get elected is morally and ethically flawed beyond comprehension. This is made worse when declining to act for political gain hurts not only the country but our allies as well.

I read last night that natural gas exploration has been put on hold, and some of my friends are expressing great concern that the cost of heating their homes this winter will increase as a result. Aside from the ridiculousness of putting ourselves and our allies in a tight spot previously that nearly led to Germany being so beholden to the Russians that they nearly chose their own needs over the collective needs of the West, the reason behind this decision from the Biden administration is blatantly obvious. It’s a political move to remind any slightly left of center voters that the party against climate change is the part of Joe Biden. Regardless of the short and long term cost and danger behind such a decision, it’s obvious that later down the road that decision will likely be reversed anyway. Remember when the Houthis were removed from the list that labeled them a terrorist organization, simply because the previous President did it at the last minute before he left office? Yeah, that sure last a long time. No meaningful change has occurred when moronic decisions like this are made, except in the political rat race.

It’s insane that we continue to vote for people who do this sort of thing. We are like battered wives, unwilling to get away from those who abuse us for fear of what the alternative is. Frankly, we often forget that it is we who are supposed to hold these people accountable. The thought that anyone deeply entrenched in the system will do anything to jeopardize their place in that system by advocating against it is absurd. No, the billionaire from Manhattan is not going to save you or this country, any more than the bourgeoise socialist from Vermont will. It is incumbent on us, the voting populace, to hold these people accountable during elections. If we failed to do this, we are not only furthering our own demise, we are ensuring it.