Writes Daniel Lareaux:
10:20 am on November 4, 2014An excerpt from your quote of Jim Quinn says it all: “Neither party will change the status quo because they are the status quo.”
A long time ago I asked the police chief of Oakland that if “You’re not responsible for my protection, and you want to take my guns away, then where is my protection to come from?”
I remember being surprised at the blank stare I was given in return. It was one of my first inklings that I was not dealing with people who thought on the same level as I did. I have since seen that same distant, almost inhuman stare, on pretty much every politician I’ve met since. He never answered my question either.
REP Rob Bishop didn’t have it when he responded to my question regarding what criteria he used when deciding what Bills should go to the floor and he replied “Whatever the house leadership tells me to do”….but he has gained it since. Now he looks at me like I’m a talking hog. As if he’s wondering “Why does this hog speak? Knows he not we shall dine on him come Easter?”
I think the power in Washington is like a narcotic. It’s addictive, makes one feel good, but ultimately destroys the user. The empty stare of the politician and the drug abuser are eerily similar.
During the last election I was busily filling out my ballot by writing in names of family members and friends, when I suddenly stopped. I realized that I didn’t want to control those offices–I didn’t want those offices to exist anymore. I left the ballot half done.
This year I tossed mine in the trash. No more status quo blank stares for me.
