Kakistocracy

“The Roman Republic fell, not because of the ambition of Caesar or Augustus, but because it had already long ceased to be in any real sense a republic at all. When the sturdy Roman plebeian, who lived by his own labor, who voted without reward according to his own convictions, and who with his fellows formed in war the terrible Roman legion, had been changed into an idle creature who craved nothing in life save the gratification of a thirst for vapid excitement, who was fed by the state, and who directly or indirectly sold his vote to the highest bidder, then the end of the republic was at hand, and nothing could save it. The laws were the same as they had been, but the people behind the laws had changed, and so the laws counted for nothing.”
~Theodore Roosevelt, March 25, 1911

Kakistocracy

The problem with the voters
Is they are distracted by everything
Except true policy.
“No government is better
Than the men who compose it.”
Kennedy was right.
The problem with the politicians
Is they are distracted by everything
Except true progress.
The status quo is the end of everything,
But the politicians are in the status quo,
And fight for everything in their distracted ways,
And when one Good Man comes into the picture
He is swayed by the highest bidder to
Keep the status quo, to be part of the status quo,
To form nothing new and make nothing new,
Only pretend newness is coming.
Blame the voters.
Don’t blame the government
Made of voters,
Made because of voters.
Well, these days, voters
Don’t really vote, do they?
Kennedy was right.
There are so many -cracies.
Democracy. Aristocracy. Meritocracy.
All preferable to where
We are heading.
There are so many -crazies.
We must save the American Republic.
But who is we?
Surely, I too, am distracted
By the vapid excitement
All around.
I write these days
To distract myself
From the mess inside my house.
The dishwasher seems to always have a sly grin.
And what can I say about the piled up laundry
But that it vigorously laughs, sometimes
To the point of snorting.
I also read these days for the same reason.

I try to avoid social media,

But sometimes succumb.
My house bores me.
But we cannot forget our house,
Just like we cannot forget our Republic.
I am crazy some days, too
And I am just one voter.
How many voters like me,
Distracted from true policy
Will it take for the Republic to fall?
Kennedy was partially right.
He forgot the other part.
No government is better
Than the men who vote for it.
The problem with everything
Is that men everywhere
Are distracted.
Don’t blame the government.
Don’t blame the voters.
Blame the men.
Before we were voters,
We were men.
Well, these days, men
Aren’t really men, are they?
Kennedy was partially right.
He forgot the other part.
No government is better
Than the one before it,
Unless it composes
More men,
Unless it composes
More men of virtue.
Perhaps, I should say
Our Republic needs saving,
In the passive sense.
But not today.
Today, I affirm,
We must save our Republic.