Opinion: U.S. politics takes surreal turn

As he rode to his annihilation at Little Big Horn, Custer’s Indian guide warned him; “Today, you and I are going home on a road we do not know.” I fear that we are heading down such a path today. Our government is dysfunctional, incapable of reform. The foundations of the republic — balance of powers, checks and balances — are in disarray. The legislature doesn’t legislate, the Supreme Court makes judgments according to political bias rather than judicial ideals, the executive branch ignores Congress, and the Constitution and acts by whim and fiat.

The United States has fallen in the ranks of economic freedom. The economy wallows in stagnation. Bloated regulations conceived by unelected, unaccountable, incompetent bureaucracies discourage business formation, thwarting growth and job creation. Our foreign policy operates according to a perverse logic: Embrace your enemies, abandon your friends. Our political parties have been hijacked by extremists of the right and left. No one represents the moderate majority. We have no shared values, no common ground. We can’t talk to one another. We can’t stand one another. If you believe in compromise and consensus, you’re not a true conservative or a true progressive. Never has government been in such low esteem, yet never have people expected government to do more things, an oxymoron that’s a sure sign of a confused electorate.

A public informed by common sense and rationality would be happy to have an adult president with a modest agenda for practical reforms. But candidates who’ve had some experience and success in government don’t excite the public. They represent the “establishment” and the establishment must go. We prefer someone with no record, no coherent policies, someone to entertain us, to “tell it like it is.”

We swoon when they promise to make this country “great” again or to create a utopia in which everything is free, or to abolish inequality, or to tame the climate. In other words, simplistic vapors and mirages that can bewitch people who get their mental nourishment from Twitter. Don’t be surprised if one of the candidates proposes deporting all Muslims who refuse to convert to Christianity or requiring every man, woman and child to carry a concealed weapon. How can anyone respect or believe in these sleazy egomaniacs?

The other evening on TV, one of the paragons from “Duck Dynasty” endorsed Donald Trump — and it was news. “Duck Dynasty,” friends. That’s politics in the Excited States of America. We’ve departed from reality and entered the realm of surreality. P.T Barnum for president. Step right up. Snake oil for sale.

Remember the words of Sitting Bull: “You have sold your freedom for a piece of bacon fat.” Sitting Bull must be laughing in his grave. Oh, well, the Roman emperor Caligula wanted to make his horse a consul. Where is Francis the Talking Mule? I know, I know. Don’t worry, be happy. Chill out, lighten up. As the Crew Cuts once crooned, “Life could be a dream.” Let’s hope it is. There’s always the comforting words of John Maynard Keynes: “In the end we all die.” Now altogether, everyone: “Hello, hello again, sha-boom and hopin’ we’ll meet again, life could be a dream, sweetheart.”

— George Gurley, a resident of rural Baldwin City, writes a regular column for the Journal-World.