Commentary: Utah’s Version of the Biblical Onan Serves in the Senate

There’s a wheezing old coot serving in one of Utah’s two U.S. Senate seats.  Onan Hatch, excuse me, Orrin Hatch long ago outlived his usefulness as a legislator.  I remember Onan had a towering reputation in the broadcast TV industry twenty years ago.  Apparently he owned a TV station in Utah and treated his workers well, which is rare for a broadcaster.  Now Onan has moved on to become the defender of the status quo in Washington.  This is a link from the Washington Times this past week.  The onanist is enraged because a younger member of his majority party dared expose a secret.  The Senate Majority Leader is a chinless and bald-faced liar.  It makes little difference to Onan the public trust in government institutions has completely eroded.

The public servants at the Capitol will totally ignore the wants of their constituents.  A quarter century ago columnist George Will claimed elected politicians treat their public offices as private property.  Fossilized remains like Onan Hatch are people who went to Washington years ago and already had more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.  They then used testimony from various agencies, businesses and academics for insider trading and additionally lined their pockets.  Finally, their main constituency are lobbyists and Wall Street hoodlums waving campaign donations under the noses of a greedy political class.  The folks back home are a secondary concern or worse just rabble to be segregated from the ruling elites.

Another writer last week pointed out these Republicans pledged to rid the country of Obamacare if we gave them control of both the Senate and House.  We responded and then they let us down time and again.  They railed against a Pacific trade agreement that swaps American sovereignty for narrow interests (see lobbyists and Wall Street) and then after making a populist show performed a double-cross.  They promised tighter controls at a porous border.  And we wait.  When you can explain the workings of the Export-Import Bank to average Americans of all political backgrounds you get a response bordering on horror.  The bank died and then rose again on the lie foisted upon fellow Senate Republicans by the walking pustule, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.  Speaking of horrors, Planned Parenthood snatches the bodies of innocents and peddles the parts for profit.  The Grand Old Party has made loud noises for more than 40 years about ending the bloodbath of infanticide no civilized society would ever find itself engaged.  Now with a public sickened by the exposure of the practice the political class has left the heat and humidity of Washington and decamped for summer vacation.  The public funding of homicide continues.

No, I’ve no respect for Onan the Barbarian and the Pustule.  I’ve no respect for the effeminized Republican leadership across the Capitol in the House.  These are devious, despicable and mentally diseased demoniacs.  I grow more cynical in old age and even have my doubts about Ted Cruz and his small cadre of malcontents, however.  Stating the obvious isn’t usually heroic.  Exposing the empty souls and suits leading this country straight for the gates-of-hell is a noble cause even if its main design is for personal gain.  Political advantage in the name of righteousness seems to me a far better alternative than the scam of which we’ve been exposed.  A conservative leaning libertarian friend tells me over the course of his long lifetime the Republican Party has let him down much more often than Democrats.  The evil men on the Hill delude themselves.  They believe they can govern with smoke and mirrors in perpetuity.  I think there’s a growing and better wager they’ll sooner swing from ropes.