It’s the week before Christmas and the only stirrings in the House are ones of Impeachment. This never-ending echo, having begun in 2016 only to be interrupted once, briefly, last Christmas for a mere government shutdown that provided Congressional members with an extended holiday break until February, has finally arrived at its intended crescendo. The orchestrated notes were accompanied by claims of solemnity and prayerfulness and, most importantly, in order to ensure a maximum audience, the woeful announcement was delayed until the morning of Friday the 13th of December because no one was watching on Thursday the 12th.
It is this last point most worth noting, just in case Congress has not correctly calculated the damage it has done to its own institution. For all the apathy Congress has spewed at voters over decades past, the perhaps unintended consequence has arrived for them just in time for Christmas. The People, having been repeatedly ignored for the last century or so, now offer the members of Congress their sweet revenge. It is their apathy Congress must unwrap this holiday season and wear as a badge of dishonor for their past misdeeds.
It did not happen overnight. With each lie sold and every promise broken, the People held steadfastly to their faith in the next season. Not unlike the spirit of Christmas, this faith served as fuel to hope for a reemergence of good will amongst members of Congress, a prayer for the rebirth of loyalty and trustworthiness, and a longing for the merriness and joy amongst members of both parties that is the result of helping someone other than yourself. The People waited and, as distasteful demonstrations in our great House grew more and more common, as the selfishness increased, the People became more and more disappointed and disgruntled.
Finally, after repeated helpings of angst were served along sides of fervor with doomsday predictions that promised only bad tidings and soured intentions, no one longer cared to watch our great House fall apart in such absolute disarray. People no longer paid attention when Members delivered dark, dismal promises of harm whose sole, seeming intention was to elicit more dark, dismal promises of more harm. So, the People retreated to the monotony of their own lives as a welcome distraction from the Shakespearean tragedy that unfolded daily as those in the confines of our great Capitol forgot the People, lost themselves and betrayed every good thing within our great government.
Therefore it should not come as any shock that, despite any dismay from Congressional Members and despite any manufactured phrasing from Focus Groups and consultants thrown repeatedly at us over commercial breaks, there will be no revival of the People over this Christmas holiday. America has tuned out. Soon, your war chests will be empty and your broadcasts filled with only those paid participants who’ve been personally delivered by your staffs. For, when those in Congress betray our ideals, our principles and the fundamental nature of our government – of, by and for the people – so exquisitely … a rightful fate is for all of them to merely exist amongst themselves until such a season is born where they are forced with finality to extend a hand to their pretend foe and actually govern.
I doubt this Christmas will produce such a miracle. The only hope for a Merry Christmas and a jolly good night for the People in America is in the next election cycle.
