From paradise to bedlam II

Jacob Stewart, Columnist

Spring is fast approaching, readers, and sure, we’ll be out of the frigid physical winter, but the metaphoric is still with us. Yes, here I am, pure cynicism even with the sun shining bright in a gentle blue sky. That’s who I am, readers — a the storm cloud that wrecks a wonderful day — but hey, while I am far from cheery, the poor excuses for living human beings that we know as politicians do far more damage with a single sentence than I could with 100 of these articles.

Indeed, the pen is mightier than the sword, and it is even worse when the pen is dipped in the kind of poison favored by the decrepit Grand Old Party.

Take their dependence on the NRA, for instance. It’s an ugly relationship, the kind you’d find lurking hand in hand in the shadows of back alleys in cities where the rain never stops. The GOP has made sure to keep people armed, but god forbid they keep them educated as they continue to wage their war against public education and pump business-focused ideology into the college system behind the moronic leadership of Betsy DeVos.

I know, the NRA was my punching bag in the last article, but they seem unwilling to get out of the way, the need for conflict oozing from their pores. I figured I’d use them again to simply point out the fact that the GOP sees the need to regulate women far more important than firearms.

It’s not a new argument, but we still have to address it, and seeing as how we’re nearing the end of the second decade in the 21st century, we can all witness how depressing our situation is.

We should be used to it by now. Our souls should be toughened to the point where they are more machine than ethereal, but this isn’t the case. No, not when we’re pushing for a world that makes sense, a world where the people in power care more for the common man than the billionaires. Will America ever reach this point?

Not with Trump in office, let alone, the Republicans in Congress. Midterms are approaching, and if we can hold out till then, stay angry till then, perhaps we can finally have the strength to storm the Bastille that is our crooked, backwards-thinking, legislative body.

Then, maybe we can get some new blood flowing through the system, and that’s how we start moving forward instead of allowing ourselves to be dragged back into the Dark Age of thought.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, all this idealism has gotten me in the mood for a stiff drink and a swift hit to the jaw to knock some sense into me. It’s dangerous for a cynic to get these kinds of notions.

If they last too long, they might start to bring some positivity into a person’s life, and believe me, it’s still too early for that. Remember, stay angry and hold steady. Winter may be ending, but the trouble is still in our midst.