I've lost faith. I've lost faith in the so-called "educated electorate" that Thomas Jefferson envisioned so many years ago. I've lost faith in the ability of our people to look at potential elected representatives and understand the stakes involved in voting for that person. I've lost faith in the American voter to look at facts, distinguish reality from rhetoric, and support competent, reasonable, and serious individuals. I say this because we are a nation in which Sarah Palin can get her own TV show. We are a nation in which a duplicitous sleaze bag like Rick Perry can top Republican approval polls. We are a nation that elects a candidate and within a year institutes a massive recall. We are a nation that nurtures a movement that would strangle its own government out of spite and fear. We are a nation at war with itself, and I've lost faith in the idea that it will all turn out OK because we're all fundamentally out for the nation's best interest. Politics have gone to the playground, and the American people have chosen sides.

Sarah Palin refused an appearance at a Tea Party rally in Iowa this Saturday because former Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell was going to be there. Palin, evidently, was adhering to the very junior-high girl variety of bullying by exclusion - not wanting to be seen with a national political joke like O'Donnell because she herself is so in danger of being seen in the same light. We loathe what we resemble, and that could not be more true with Tea Party ensconced women like Palin and O'Donnell. Yet people still purchased tickets, flew in from all over the country, and pray to their gods that Palin will speak at this rally and run for President; despite her miserable record on policy (and public speaking), despite her half-term gubernatorial drop-out, and despite her complete lack of accountability or experience. Palin behaves like a child and still receives public adoration.

House Majority Speaker Eric Cantor, who has been incredibly good at pandering to his Tea Party minority in the House when it is politically convenient, announced last week that any further emergency disaster relief funding that was requested by President Obama would have to be offset by spending cuts. Of course, he attempted to placate the millions of people effected by the recent earthquake and subsequent hurricane (even in his own state of Virginia) by saying "we'll find the money". In doing this, and we can only assume that this is further Tea Party mania manifested within the mainstream Republicans jostling for votes in 2012, they've essentially rid themselves of decades of tradition in which emergency disaster relief is run through congress on a slipstream to get to those American tax paying citizens that need it most. Cantor and his cronies in the House are demonstrating their regressive tendencies; it's playground bullying as political policymaking. "If you don't want a swirlie in the bathroom, you'll give me your swing," except the House Republicans are saying, "If you want the disaster relief money you'll give us our spending cuts." 'Cantor and Crew' are essentially threatening to hold relief money (for what might be the most expensive domestic natural disaster ever) hostage until they get their federal spending cuts. What's even more middle school than this tactic is the fact that Eric Cantor voted down a bill in 2004 that would have offset emergency relief funds for 2005 with cuts in discretionary spending. Hypocritical?

Finally this ridiculous media circus around President Obama wanting to give a speech on the Wednesday evening of a Republican debate. Of course House Speaker John Boehner is going to say "no". Obama attempting to upstage a Republican debate like that is 180 degrees from his previous allegations of Republicans attempting to play politics with debt limits and spending cuts. At least, that's what I heard from Republican pundits all day. The distinction is this; he's the damn President. If he wants to speak to joint congress you don't make up some B.S. excuse so that he doesn't undercut some Tea Party sponsored debate where 3/4 of the candidates are hardly relevant anyway. That, and Obama's job speech has been highly anticipated for months, and hardly runs counter to the "greater good". Sure, he might be playing politics somewhat in his choice of time, but he's still the President.

If there's one thing that has become absolutely clear in the last decade, it's that the office of President has come to mean less and less to a very vocal section of the American populace. When the White House no longer commands respect, even from its own congressional body, there is a serious rend in the political and social fabric of this country. Republican lawmakers shouting out at a Presidential address, "You lie!" A Republican "state of the union" to offer a different spin on the President's state of the union address immediately afterward. A Republican congress that won't even support their own policy ideas (like a payroll tax cut) simply because they come from a Democratic President. This is not the Republican Party I grew up with, and it is eroding this country's faith in its ability to protect and sustain itself.