I am now fully and officially tired of this shit. Time for things to change. Grab the torches and pitchforks people.
We no longer have government officials who "were trying to do the right thing" and "somehow went astray" and betrayed the public trust. We have government officials who believe they are sovereigns of their territory and they can do damn well what they please, and all of us peasants can Eff the Eff off.
So in the last post, with the embroilment of the Loudoun County Schools, angry parents are demanding the resignation of the superintendent and the entire school board.
I SAY THEE NAY! (that's old style for "No.")
In early America, whenever a miscreant or ne'er-do-well started causing trouble in a town, the other townsfolk would ban together and "escort" the offending person(s) to the edge of the area and told him to never return. This is where the term "ridden out of town on a rail" comes from. And when I say "rail," I don't mean a railroad (those were still 100 years+ in the future), rather a fence rail. Fence rails were made by splitting a log (Abraham Lincoln did this as a job when he was young) into quarters. End on, it looked like this:
Imagine having to straddle this, naked. Your intimate parts are at the apex of that roughly split trunk. So we start off with "sharp" and "splinters" in the nether regions. And it's not a smooth ride. This log you're sitting on is being held up on the shoulders of two men. Add "rough and jolting ride" to the above.
I almost forgot the most fun part, tarring and feathering. Pitch (pine tar, used to seal the bottom of ships and boats) is spread all over your body, then a sack of feathers is dumped upon you. You are covered in a layer of pitch and feathers that would be hard to remove today, let alone back then before bathing became widespread.
.
The pain and splinters were meant to serve as a lesson that you should not repeat your errors. The tar and feathers was to warn people who might encounter you that you are trouble and are to be avoided at all costs. A truly non-fatal way to communicate and drive home the importance of maintaining proper social behavior.
In the United States today, officials who have violated the public's trust are "allowed to resign." The origin of this comes from warfare. When a general sees they will be defeated, they ask their opponents for the opportunity to "resign from the field," with their remaining troops alive and intact under the condition that they cease armed conflict. These "leaders" are allowed to "resign from the field," and move on with their lives with minimal disgrace or punishment.
Betrayal of the public trust is an extremely egregious transgression second only to treason itself. It must be dealt with harshly, with absolute certainty and maximum visibility in order to provide enough incentive to these people to discourage bad behavior.
Politicians, high appointed public officials, talking heads of the media and more, all in visible positions of authority should be drummed out of their station and profession to great proclamation and ceremony. No apologies will be accepted, no waffling "SorryNotSorry" excuses. Their boss holds a press conference and they stand there, publicly humiliated as they are summarily relieved of their position, its responsibilities and benefits, while being barred from any future work in that profession. If we are talking about a government official, then they are deemed ineligible for any government position, or interacting with any government official, elected, appointed or hired. Then all applicable criminal charges are filed and the civil lawsuits may commence. Oh, and they are personally liable, the government they worked for will not pay for the lawyers or the penalties, because all that does is raise the taxes on all of us.
We have all seen over the past couple of decades where every high government official has a lot of other fellow officials cover them for any transgressions, who expect that favor to be returned when the moment comes. So any investigation should come from outside, from a randomly chosen state-level investigator, who has had no contact with anybody in or associated with "the swamp." I can't stand to see another "We have investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing."
Lt. Col Jeff Cooper said (paraphrased), "Criminals do not fear the police, nor the judge and jury. They must be taught to fear their victims." I think "Politicians" could replace "Criminals" in the quote above quite nicely, don't you agree?
Speaking of which, this will get it's own article in a couple of days.