Rosslyn, Virginia is an area of Arlington County bounded on the north and east by the Potomac River, and on the south by the Arlington National Cemetery. It is best known for its proximity to a number of the DC Metro area’s top attractions, and boasts dozens of nondescript high-rise office buildings, housing defense contractors, and many other businesses that sell to the Feds.
As it happens, I recently attended a vendor’s meeting that took place in a large conference room on the top floor of one of these buildings. What these structures lack in pleasing architecture is more than made up for by the incredible views afforded—from the right direction. Thus, I could look through the picture windows, facing northeast, and take in virtually all of the District.
Landmarks were laid out before me—challenging me to identify them—including the Washington Monument, the Capitol, the Watergate Complex, and Georgetown University. That’s when it hit me: There really must be people who still believe that this all works. And this is an equal opportunity put down, by the way. There are plenty are the Right who seem to love the Feds, although for different reasons than their brethren on the Left.
It’s easy enough to catalog the milestones of the Federal expansion. Certainly, there was no turning back after the Civil War, and FDR created the socialist miasma, that was ratcheted up during the 1960’s, along with big increases in taxes. Now, we even have a self-proclaimed “conservative” president who is setting new records in spending, and seems to have a real soft spot for illegals, especially if they’re from south of the border.
Bad as all this is, and bereft of notable accomplishment this trend to a Federal Leviathan has been, the situation took a turn for the worse in the wake of Watergate in 1974. While there are certainly a few things in Richard Nixon’s long public career worth defending, including his anti-Communism in the 1950’s; his far more forthright than JFK’s presidential campaign in 1960; and his gallant, if misguided decision to not fight the fairly obvious voting fraud that cost him that election; his later career was to be plagued with self-doubt and paranoia.
Ironically, he would try to assuage the Left, and therefore the media, with an assortment of non-conservative enterprises such as wage and price controls, abandoning the gold standard, overtures to China, and a host of intrusive agencies. All this was to do him no good, since he could never recover in their eyes from his original sin of being anti-Communist.
Thus, with his paranoia in full bloom, a minor break-in along with a media all too willing to deliver the coup de grace became the first successful example of the politics of personal destruction. It was at this point that the principal activity of Congress and the media became a sort of contest to win elections, but after the elections were won, little would ever be done other than to prepare for the next one. In short, a substantial proportion of your tax dollars are subsidizing a political sporting event.
Granted, the Dems and lefties are more into this kind of thing since they have less shame, and more experience, but, trust me, the other side is catching up. Pampered wealthy phonies like Howard Dean, John Kerry, and Teddy Kennedy can mouth all the fake populism they want, in an effort to score points in this game. But not far behind are Republican officials who are prosecuting FBI agents and others who dared to blow the whistle on our pea-shooter “war on terrorism.”
And, lest we forget, George W. himself is happily capitulating to a cadre of otherwise invisible “moderate Muslims,” while finding all kinds of ways to permanently open the borders. Someone should remind him that he won two close ones solely because there were some voters who thought he would be less of a wimp, and a bit less socialistic than his opponent.
Truth be told, this government—and it doesn’t seem to matter which party is in charge— is betraying its own country, and all the people in it.