Whither Faith In The Feds.

For what it is worth, a recent major poll indicates that Americans are at least as disenchanted with Congress as they are with the President. Had I been polled, I would have expressed a similar sentiment, since Congress seems to display nothing so much as a peculiar and unsavory mixture of mendacity, fecklessness, sheer lunacy, and, of course, corruption.

And as is it so happens, Congress is the arena supplying much of this election cycle’s Presidential, er, kindling. I imagine you know most of the names, and I will be anxious to know your thoughts on the lineup. I do use the term, lineup, advisedly. Mitt Romney, a powerful candidate, but not of the legislative cohort, comes immediately to mind as one I will avoid with prejudice. Perhaps this is because he was once governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, my home, and I know Mr. Romney to be a person who possesses a surfeit of ambition, but little else that should inspire the electorate, unless, of course, knowledge that the former governor's favorite novel, some woeful tome from the oeuvre of L. Ron Hubbard, yes, that L. Ron Hubbard, is appealing.

But my brief discussion of one candidate aside, it is a serious matter that we Americans are deeply disenchanted with both the Legislative and Executive branches of our government, and I maintain the frightfully obvious position that it augurs poorly for social stability going forward. I will also argue, perhaps less obviously, that a broad distaste for the political class inside the Beltway is indirect evidence that the nation's economy, despite Wall Street’s incessant happy talk, is in rapidly deteriorating shape.

The ongoing nationwide housing debacle, the damage from which is systematically discounted by the MSM, has far from run its course, or exacted its full pound of flesh from the general economy. In the meantime, for other reasons, the average American is losing purchasing power at an alarming rate as the actual rate of inflation runs far in excess of official government numbers. I suspect that John Q. Public is increasingly aware of the chicanery that would have him believe falsely that the contents of his wallet are not under attack. And while the hideous bungling of our criminal escapade in Iraq is almost certainly a more substantial tributary to the national mood of discontent with Federal officialdom, the corrosive effect of embedded economic mendacity, whether it is known consciously or not, should not be underestimated.