During the Thanksgiving Day weekend, a prequel to “The Hunger Games” was released, showing the origin story for Coriolanus Snow who will later become the dictator over Panem, a fictional country that greatly resembles the United States.
The elder Snow rules with an iron fist, much like what we see in China and North Korea. It’s typical dictatorial government.
What’s unique about “The Hunger Games” is the annual tradition of the battle-to-the-death of tributes from each district not including the Capital.
Each District provides a boy and a girl to fight each other in the forced “Hunger Games” to display the Capital’s dominance over the outlying districts.
When Snow was a child, there was an uprising in the districts, and after the Capital won the war, there was a split between the quality of life in the districts and the Capital.
While the outlying districts toiled to provide food, coal and other necessities with the people constantly on the verge of starvation, the Capital became a thriving metropolis dripping in opulence and overindulgence.
How is it that a movie series can easily show just how corrupt a centralized government can become and be supported by those who benefit from the spoils of a society that claims to bind the nation together while basically holding the districts in slavery?
While the United States does not yet reflect this dystopian view, how far away are we from it coming true?
The evidence is trending that way.
How is it that many of our elected leaders who earn $170,000 per year are able to afford three homes, all valued at more than $1 million each?
How is it that Washington, D.C. is bloated with lawmakers, lobbyists and special interests, all benefitting from more taxes and bigger government all while the rest of the country struggles through an economy ravaged by inflation and overprinting of money?
The “Capital” and its inhabitants are doing quite well while the rest of America, or the “districts,” struggle to support the special interests who leach off the Capital.
Washington, D.C. votes heavily Democratic because the Democratic Party favors the interests driving bigger government.
In the 2020 election, D.C. voted 92 percent for Democrat Joe Biden and only 5 percent for Donald Trump. When those in the Capital are so staunchly partisan, the evidence of a two-tired social strata is obvious.
And if you believe it is just an overwhelming hatred of Trump, look at other candidates. John McCain only garnered 6 percent of the D.C. vote. Mitt Romney had 7 percent. George W. Bush earned 9 percent of the D.C. vote.
Forty years ago, Ronald Reagan earned the most support from D.C. as a Republican, and that was only 13 percent despite Reagan winning 49 states. When a Republican can win 49 states and lose D.C. with only 13 percent of the vote, it is clear the nation’s capital does not represent the view of the nation as a whole.
Those same people also drive the agenda in the nation’s capital. They work for the seat of government in the various departments, from the FBI and CIA to the Department of Education, FEMA, OSHA, and the list goes on and on. How can all those people working for the government be so partisan as to only support one political party in their voting while being the supposed public employees representing the nation as a whole?
And when the seat of government, who also controls the reigns of the military, the IRS and all other entities intended to work for the nation, begin to interject those biases in their work, how can it not be viewed as a system designed for their benefit over that of the people they can easily criminalize by being both judge and jury? How could a conservative receive a fair trial in D.C. with this massive bias in the population of the capital?
If one simple historic rule applies, it is this — whoever controls the capital controls the country. It was true in medieval times. It is true today.
Politically, the capital has fallen, and no matter who is elected president, there is no way to reverse the advantage of the far left liberals who control 92 percent of the capital’s viewpoints.
Whenever they decide to end the charade of elections, they can do so. They can decide who is allowed to serve and who will be called a traitor. The bureaucracy runs the show. Not Donald Trump. Not Joe Biden.
To this point, they have allowed the presidency to continue. The biggest threat to their control has been Trump. He failed in his first term to adequately remove the power from the iron grip of the system in D.C. He has vowed to insure the “districts” outside of D.C. maintain control over the federal government, and that has been distorted into being a “threat to democracy” by those truly holding dominion over the rest of us.
Despite trying to address issues during his presidency, the agencies slow walked and outright ignored Trump’s attempts at bringing a balanced approach to government.
Topeka is no different.
While elected officials attempt to slow down spending and enhance education, the bureaucrats extort more money with no requirement for performance needed. Even in a conservative state like Kansas, the Democrat won the capital county 60 percent to 38 percent.
Movies sometimes accidentally provide a truth, and the fictional Capital is not unlike the real thing.
Earl Watt is the owner and publisher of the Leader & Times in Liberal, Kansas. Watt started his career in journalism in 1991 at the Southwest Daily Times. During his career, the newspaper has won a total of 17 Sweepstakes awards from the Kansas Press Association for editorial content and 18 Sweepstakes awards for advertising. Watt has been recognized with more than 70 first place awards for writing in categories from sports and column to best front pages, best sports pages and best opinion pages. Watt is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and is the descendant of several patriots who fought for America's freedom and independence.
