A photo worth millions of words

One of the Heavenly Hundred (aka the Senate) deigns to meet with his serfs constituents:

Photo caption: U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., listens to a question during a town hall, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, in Sun Lakes, Ariz. McCain defended his proposed immigration overhaul to an angry crowd in suburban Arizona in the latest sign that this border state will play a prominent role in the national immigration reform debate.

I think this photo captures the essence of the relationship between Americans and their government today.  McCain is clearly irritated he has to continue selling explain "his" proposal to anyone, much less a group of people who obviously aren't buying, despite all the fancy, taxpayer-funded propaganda charts on display behind him.  

The body language of the citizen says it all, as well: "what part of defend the borders and enforce the laws don't you people get?" 

What we have here is far worse than a failure to communicate.  We have rulers, rather than representatives.  Unresponsive to the voters, the Heavenly Hundred and their more populous partners, the House of Horrors, have several focused agendas.  They will 'legitimize' them to the voters if they can, but recent history shows they will press ahead even if they can't.  

The voters bear a share of the blame for this, too.  I have to wonder how many of the town hall attendees have voted repeatedly for McCain, despite his (pardon the irony) 'well-documented' position on legalizing undocumented workers ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.  I suspect many more than would admit it.  It's this lazy, "oh, but he's MY Senator, and I can change him" attitude that's brought us to this point.  With no reasonable fear of electoral consequences, the ruling class jams whatever it wants down our throats.  

There's plenty of talk about populist revolt these days, even 'revolution' in some quarters.  It's possible that at the moment of crisis, such would be justified (for instance, if the government tries to disarm the citizenry).  But it's sad--tragic--to know that, if it comes to such a point, future generations will justifiably condemn us for not availing ourselves of electoral corrections that would have prevented the need for violent action from developing.

They gave us a Republic... if we could keep it.  We didn't.  The "idiots" we decry in government are there because we allow it.  They are the opportunists--the symptom of the problem, not it's main cause.