Pigs & Politicians

When I was a little girl on the farm, my uncle kept pigs.  Each morning and evening, he would fill a slop bucket and trudge up the hill to the pig sty where the pigs would erupt in a riot of greed and gluttony, loudly and ferociously shoving each other into the mud, climbing and trampling over each other in an effort to be first at the trough. They were smarter, better mannered, better bred and had more integrity than the current crop of politicians. They didn't pretend to be concerned with anything but the contents of the slop bucket.  They were openly and exclusively dedicated to self interest and self preservation, indifferent to and contemptuous of the rest of the farm, caring only for their own swollen bellies.  They were fat, lazy, dirty, and they smelled but they didn't pretend to be anything but pigs - and therein is the difference between pigs and politicians in this country today - that, and of course the fact that all the pigs eventually came to a bad end while the politicians thrive and prosper on sex scandals, racism, abuse of power and public corruption.  We piss and moan all the way to the ballot box to re-elect them, hoping that what....?  A little of the swill will trickle down?  As a British lady I once knew said, Not bloody likely.

And to be democratic about it, it's not just swine.  Consider the following quote from Sybil Fawlty:

I have seen more intelligent creatures than you lying on their backs at the bottom of ponds! I've seen better organized creatures than you running 'round farm yards with their heads cut off!

When it comes to what is charitably called "public service", horses have better instincts, cows are far more community minded, and chickens....well, chickens don't really care one way or another as long as they get their feed, another requirement for the I've got mine mentality of those elected to serve.  

How is it possible, I find myself wondering on a daily basis, to be an elected representative of the people and discard them because they're female, not white, not rich, under twelve or just don't see things your way?  Congress doesn't have sponsors or contributors, they have owners, just like professional sports teams.  We are not participants, we are spectators and every game is fixed.  And under the I've got mine philosophy, that's how things will stay.  It's nauseating.

Sybil Fawlty wasn't talking about politicians or an apathetic, indifferent electorate.    

But she could've been.

My apologies to the pigs.