Those sands will be further blurred by the winds of fear, panic, misinformation, and prejudice, which characterize modern reportage, cyber-sewage, and political propaganda.

In simpler language, the average American will not know what the hell has really happened until those happenings have become indelibly archival, well beyond the reach of preventive action.

Part of the problem is the fact that we have a reprehensible (pun intended) form of government,  rather than a pure democracy - i.e., government directly by the people.

Under our present system (if one can call it that, which this one can't,) we directly express our wishes only by referendum. This leaves almost all governance in the hands of those we elect to public office, whom we then trust to protect our interests, and reflect our preferences.

If the current crop of creepage on Crapitall Hill have discharged either obligation, it has escaped these aging eyes, and skeptical ears.

I wonder, for example, how it was possible that our hundreds of watchdogs in Congress, as well as their supposed supervisors in the Executive Branch, failed to foresee the multiple train wrecks that have occurred in the recent,, and regrettable past.

How could they not know, for example, that allowing - nay, encouraging - people to take on mortgages they couldn't afford to carry, was no less stupid than was feeding rum to the Indians in our old Wild West?

Or that blindly stuffing these financial excreta into pinatas of promise would foul the nest eggs of Fanniedom, and Freddieland?

Or that serial budget deficits were, in fact, vultures, which will come home to roost on the heads of generations yet unborn?

Or that earmarks are end runs around the defense lines against irresponsible spending?

Or that it really IS how you play the game, whether you win is more important than looking after the best interests of ALL the people?

Or that misinformation, lying, and spinning, are inseparably synonymous?

Or that finger-pointing at (or flipping off) the opposition leaves three times as many fingers pointing back at themselves?

All that said (and, yes, I do feel better for having said it), we have a whole new "bawl" game to deal with, and exactly the same problems (with a few more yet to come;) but we also have a  new roster of players on the field, with an opportunity to change some of the rules.

One of those rules should not be for them to focus on the continued tenure of their incumbencies.

Prior to the most recent voting, Congress collectively enjoyed an approval rating lower than a working mole's ass, but we "punished" nearabout all of them with reelection.

One promising result of that partial reshuffling was that a single party will now be at both the legislative, and executive, helms of government, leaving no doubt about responsibility for future navigation, landfalls, and shipwrecks.

In the recent past, for the most part, our "reprehensible" (i.e., deserving of rebuke, or censure) form of government has been a two-ring circus under the "big tarp" of partisanship.

In one ring were elephants, circling trunk-to-tail, and in the other, a similar orbit of donkeys, nuzzling each others' behinds; each group responding to their whip-snapping leadership.

Ignored, and ultimately victimized, were us-all - the "ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages," who financed the greatest "slow" on earth, in terms of dealing with our problems, present, and yet to come.

If the past foreshadows the future, the performers in our governmental circus will again confuse partisanship with progress, motion with action, seniority with sagacity, rhetoric with reason, and power control with the common weal.

One can only hope - this one can, anyway - that those we chose to run things for us, will focus on a government representative of our needs, rather than of their own partisan political goals.

If they can do so, more power to them.

If not, the plot can be thickened, and the ranks of incumbency thinned, come our next Election Day.

For now, the partying part of partisan playtime is over, and it's clearly time to deal with the hangover under our single Big Top - and deploy people with buckets, and shovels, to deal with the unpleasant droppings in the show rings of our government.