The Body Politic

The Philippine political scene is a mess. 

Crazy, dirty, skanky, embarrassing, corrupt politicians lord it over a people who couldn’t care less, except those very few who have access to the internet—those very few who show their concern by assiduously posting their inane and idiotic observations about their inane and idiotic politicians on any website that has a comments section.

 And the politicians are actors/famous athletes/famous for whatever reasons--and their spouses and relatives and their spawns, legitimate or not. 

…and let’s not forget the political clans. No self-respecting village, town, city, province or entire island/region is without a clan to rule over them—the Philippines’ own version of royalty, plus their rival clans.

Yes, they have rival clans. They make every elections very exciting, especially in the provinces. 

(Note: image is from here)

The current President—who incidentally is from such a clan—is a former senator who got elected to the top position despite a career in Congress (both Houses!) that is as impressive as the dunking prowess of John Stockton.  

Pictured: John Stockton not dunking

He is busy going after his immediate predecessor, whom he blames for the current hellhole the country is in. His predecessor had also blamed her predecessor, and her predecessor, in turn, blamed his…well, you probably know where this is going.

Politicians in the Philippines have mastered the art of the blame game. 

Here, the buck never stops.

To be fair, politics in most countries is the same. (Oddly comforting in a "hey-its-not-just-us kind of way) Just look at US politics.

Donald Trump is accusing Jon Stewart of being racist, which is pretty ironic.

Meanwhile, Ann Coulter, whose political clout is as puzzling and unfathomable to me as Kim Kardashian’s fame, is saying that “Our blacks are so much better than their blacks.” (she was comparing blacks from the Republican Party with blacks from the Democratic Party)

This strikes me as incredibly condescending, and very, very wrong.  

A WTF?! moment, to be sure.

Add to that Michelle Bachmann, who famously defended carbon dioxide (''Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.'').

 And Sarah Palin’s Department of Law ("I think on a national level your Department of Law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out.")

That just goes to show you, politics attracts the wrong kind of people.

Or maybe the right one.