WHAT IS “THE SWAMP” AND WHY IS IT DANGEROUS?
The phrase “drain the swamp” alludes to the historical draining of swamps and wetlands to keep mosquito populations low in order to combat malaria. Now “drain the swamp” is being used as a metaphor by politicians referring to reducing the corrupt and out-of-control bureaucracy of the United States government.
Firing corrupt people in the government essentially takes away their money and power, which is analogous to the removal of water from a swamp diminishing the ability for mosquitoes to multiply and spread disease. Draining the proverbial swamp in Washington D.C. is nearly impossible to do when people are exempt from accountability and sheltered from losing their jobs.
Veterans Administration employees were part of that special protected class of people who could not lose their employment status, no matter what their job performance was. The net result was the wholesale murder of American veterans due to wanton and careless neglect.
And even after the scandal broke about veterans dying as they waited to see a doctor, no VA employees were ever held fully accountable for the death and suffering they caused. The Washington D.C. swamp is always expensive in tax dollars, but occasionally costly in human life as well.
Pat Buchanan once said, “Neither Beltway party is going to drain this swamp: it’s a protected wetland; they breed in it, they spawn in it.” Many “swamp creatures” will lie, cheat and steal to protect bastions of power. They do this by procuring government jobs for cronies and members of their immediate and extended family. They believe in the rule-of-law, only if it doesn’t threaten their jobs, their bonuses and their retirements.
The primary swamp creatures of the military are flag-ranking officers who enjoy the privilege of being allowed to retire to avoid prosecution. The civilians have their swamp, and believe us… the military does too.