Patriots, Pigs And Traitors: The Three Kinds Of Politicians

I have come to believe that Washington has three kinds of politicians: patriots, pigs and traitors. Harsh? Maybe. But look at what happens in Congress and tell me these three descriptions don’t fit.

Patriots understand that public office is a responsibility, not a prize. They believe the Constitution places limits on government for good reason. They respect our liberties, defend the rule of law and recognize that the American people are their employers, not their subjects. They may disagree about taxes, spending, immigration or foreign policy. Disagreement does not disqualify anyone from being a patriot. The willingness to put country ahead of personal advantage is what matters.

Unfortunately, I fear there are too few of them.

Then there are the pigs. And yes, I use that word deliberately to describe certain politicians’ attitudes toward public service. These are politicians who treat Washington like a feeding trough. They arrive promising reform and quickly discover the comforts of power, influence and prestige. Keeping the job becomes more important than doing the job.

They learn which donors to please, which committee assignments carry influence and which positions will attract the least political resistance. They speak passionately about fiscal responsibility while tolerating spending they would condemn if the other party proposed it. They promise transparency until transparency becomes inconvenient. Principles are negotiable. Reelection is not.

The trouble with the pigs is not simply their appetite for power. It is their willingness to follow whoever seems strongest. They watch polls, donors, party leadership and the latest political winds before deciding where they stand. If defending the Constitution is popular, they will waive the Constitution. If surrendering another measure of freedom becomes politically convenient, many will find a speech to justify that, too.

And that brings us to the most troubling category: traitors.

I am not talking about Americans who simply disagree over taxes, spending or the proper role of government. I am talking about those who seek to dismantle from within the constitutional republic they have sworn to defend. Among the most troubling are communists and radical socialists who openly advocate replacing our free-enterprise system with government control of production, abolishing institutions such as the United States Senate and fundamentally rewriting the constitutional framework that restrains government power. This is not about tweaking government policy. This is about fundamentally changing America into something its founders never intended.

What concerns me even more is the willingness of some elected officials to pursue these objectives while taking an oath to support and defend the very Constitution their agenda would undermine. They seek government power that exceeds constitutional limits, support laws that disregard constitutional protections and promote economic systems that would replace private ownership and individual choice with political control. There is a legitimate constitutional process for proposing change. But using public office to circumvent constitutional restraints while working to destroy the system those restraints protect is something entirely different. I believe Americans have every right to call that a betrayal of their country.