March 20, 2005

Reveling in Irrelevance

Although the seemingly incredulous and often times, surreal, events of the past four years have completely succeeded in leaving me in a perpetual state of disbelief, disillusion, and discombobulation, current events seem to only exacerbate my dark disenchantment with the political system of this country and those who perpetuate it. While the 2004 election brought shock, and the recent developments regarding evolution in schools, outrage, tonight's news regarding the passage of Congressional legislation supporting Terri Schiavo's right to live simply makes me wonder whether I've been watching a terrible movie for the last few years - a movie that just won't end and keeps getting worse.

I had been following the drama of the Schiavo case off and on for the past few years since it leapt onto the national stage, but never really understood why it had gained such prominence. For me, the case seemed undeniably tragic, but not particularly complex from a legal standpoint. Given the testimony of several court-appointed doctors who agreed that Schiavo had lost cognitive function and persisted solely in a vegetative state, as well as the husband's status as legal guardian, the decision to remove the feeding tube keeping her alive seemed almost self-evident. Yet, month after month, and year after year, new obstacles and legal manueverings seemed to stagnate an issue that had already lingered on entirely too long.

The intervention of the right to life groups claiming to know Schiavo's wishes when medical experts could not was irritating and reminiscent of all the posturing common to situations involving abortion cases. The emergence of every nutjob from crazed fundamentalist groups only worsened a situation already ridden in tragedy, by allowing the shameless exploitation by soulless politicians seeking to rally a conservative constituency. When the Florida legislature intervened in October of 2003, I was shocked that it was allowed to progress, considering how ridiculous it seemed for the legislature to pass a law pertaining to only one person and one specific circumstance. The intervention by Congress, more than a year later, after the Florida legislature was rebuked, seems equally ridiculous, but infinitely more disconcerting, considering the precedence of such an action.

I don't know what's more sad - that the Republicans are exploiting this situation so thoroughly and unabashedly or that the Democrats are sitting back like pansies, doing nothing, probably fearing backlash from the moral majority. What makes the situation even more dismaying is that while Congress, in the past weeks, hasn't been able address any major issue facing the nation or even figure out a budget, did manage to return after leaving for Easter recess explicitly to vote on this particular bill. It's always great to know that our illustrious representatives have their priorities straight!

I'm not sure how much more of this type of nonsense I can handle; it might be time to join my MTV-watching, collar-popping friends in political ignorance and apathy. Atleast then I won't have to be depressed everytime I read the news.