I realize that there are a lot more important things going on in our country than what the liars and thieves in Washington are wearing as they betray us, but the change in the Senate dress code has me in a chokehold – and not in a good way.
In case you missed it, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer nixed the dress code to accommodate John Fetterman (the freshman from Pennsylvania that looks like a village oaf).
In the grand scheme of things, it probably doesn’t matter what these criminals wear as they send an extra 40 billion to Ukraine or let another couple hundred thousand illegal immigrants into the United States. But I can’t stop thinking about it.
Just when we thought Joe Biden and his gaggle of misfits couldn’t lower the bar anymore, they limbo right under it. Just when we think we’ve reached a limit of embarrassment or disappointment they can subject us to, they remind us the limit does not exist.
I understand that I’m probably operating with an inherent personal bias, as I’m much more of an overdresser than an underdresser. One of my friends was actually in disbelief the first time she saw me in jeans because that’s how rarely I wear them. I live in dresses and heels.
So there’s a possibility I’m blowing things out of proportion. But I don’t think I am.
Fast food workers have uniforms. Bottle girls have uniforms. Janitors have uniforms. But 100 of the most powerful and influential people in the WORLD collecting a top 6% salary paid for by We, The People can’t bother to throw on a suit before they assault our Constitution?
Our country isn’t just failing economically or strategically. We’re failing culturally and aesthetically, and I’m starting to wonder if fiscal decline can ever be fully separated from vibrational decline.
Every day, we get fatter, sloppier and dumber.
We’ve completely abandoned our standards.
And while it may seem like an isolated issue on its surface, I think it says a lot about who we’re becoming.
As a people, we’ve completely lost our sense of pride. We don’t take pride in how we look, we don’t take pride in where we live and we don’t take pride in what we do.
If you’re my age or younger, at some point in your education, a teacher probably told you in one way or another that you shouldn’t be proud to be an American. They might have shown you that prattling monologue from The Newsroom. They might have told you that because of government sanctioned tragedies like slavery or the Trail of Tears that you shouldn’t feel any particular allegiance to this country; that this country was no better than any other. They might have pointed to places like Europe and Canada, and their “free” college and education to convince you that as an American, you had nothing to be proud of. They probably made it sound intellectual and enlightened to adopt an atheistic indifference (or an atheistic contempt) for your country, designating patriotism as a backwards, backwoods belief reserved for stupid, simple people incapable of critical thought.
So if you don’t take any pride in the country you live in, why take any pride in the neighborhood you live in? Why bat an eye or double take when you see your streets littered with garbage, growing hordes of junkies, or crumbling infrastructure? If there’s nothing special about where you live, why resist its devolution to third world standards of living?
I don’t know how much of this is a product of our flawed workforce versus lazy, Marxist messaging but it seems like no one takes pride in what they do anymore. And don’t get me wrong – I don’t think work should rule our lives or define us. I don’t think it makes sense to let employers that don’t care about us run us ragged. But people seem to think of their jobs as a place to run out the clock and collect a paycheck, and that’s not a good thing either. I know how miserable minimum wage jobs can be. In college I worked sales support at the mall and I even worked at a gas station one summer. I’m not going to pretend I went into work with an ear to ear smile every day or that I was thrilled to mop floors or clean dressing rooms. But no matter how little I was making or how crappy of a job I had, I tried to do it well.
I think we should take some degree of pride in the work we do, no matter where we are in life, because when we don’t, every interaction we have with one another becomes an extension of the DMV. Whether we’re the clerk or the customer, we’re miserable, uninspired and forced to expect mediocrity. America has embraced a Burger King work ethic, and we desperately need to find our way back to a Chick-fil-A work ethic.
Instead of trying our hardest to look our best, we tell ourselves that we’re stunning and brave at any size and it’s self care to constantly indulge our greed while making no real or consistent effort to exercise.
And since we can’t be inconvenienced with portion control, healthier alternatives, daily movement or discipline of any kind, why bother inconveniencing ourselves with putting on a real outfit when we could just throw on some stained sweatpants and call it a day? We know we won’t be the only ones dressed like Adam Sandler, so what do we have to lose?
I understand that leggings and t shirts are comfortable, and people have a lot going on in their lives. This isn’t supposed to be a personal attack on anyone that prefers dressing down. I think it’s possible to acknowledge something negative without berating everyone that’s participated in it. For example, I hate how much influence Jeff Bezos has over the world, and I still buy from Amazon.
But maybe part of our problem is that we’ve gotten too comfortable, and sacrificed too much in the name of convenience. And I say all of this fully aware that I’m no model American, with ample room to improve.
I don’t know if we’ve fallen as far as we have by design or coincidence. I don’t know if the powers that be made us as complacent as we are, or if we became that way on our own and they’re just taking advantage of it.
But if we want to live in a better country, we have to become better people.
A nation with pride wouldn’t accept what we’ve become. They wouldn’t accept a “president” with dementia, they wouldn’t accept a veep with the oratory talent of a 6th grader, and they wouldn’t accept their senators in basketball shorts. But a nation of overweight losers dressed like they eat in soup kitchens, with nothing but hostility or apathy for their country absolutely would.
what do you think?