According to Google Maps, I live 39 miles from The White House. Looking at the region around the White House, I’ve thought about what might be a mascot for what Donald Trump and his supporters call The Swamp. How about Polyphemus, the one-eyed Titan from Homer? Another contender might be Medusa, the snake-haired hottie who turns those who look at her into stone. A more modern contender for The Swamp mascot might be Jabba the Hut from the Star Wars series.

A vote for Donald Trump this November is a vote to “drain the swamp.” For those of you unfamiliar with this term, I offer Wikipedia.

Drain the swamp is a phrase which has frequently been used by politicians since the 1980s and in the U.S. often refers to reducing the influence of special interests and lobbyists. The phrase can allude to the physical draining of swamps which is conducted to keep mosquito populations low in order to combat malaria, prevalent during the time in Washington, D.C., on supposed swampy grounds. [End notes omitted.]

A vote for Kamala Harris, however, is a vote to pour “Miracle Gro” on the swamp.

It is a shame that we don’t have Dante around to describe The Swamp because he did such a good job in The Inferno describing Hell. I will try.

Many decisions about the United States government’s conduct are made in DC, aka, The Swamp. The military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about resides in The Swamp. The intelligence services—the FBI, CIA, NSA, and myriad other intelligence entities—all are located near The Swamp. The lobbyists on K Street connive in The Swamp. The Wizard of The Swamp, former President Obama, lives and meddles in the middle of the Swamp.

DC is supposed to be the home of the government “of the people, for the people, and by the people.” It is now “of the elites, for the elites, and by the elites.” President Harry Truman wrote once, “Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.”

I would love to see a C-SPAN forum of Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Barack Obama discussing that quote because all of them have made fortunes as elected leaders in Washington. It seems the richer they get, the less responsive Washington is to the citizens from sea to shining sea.

Donald Trump did not make his fortune sucking the mammaries of the Swamp Beast like the denizens of The Swamp. Unlike the C-SPAN panelists mentioned above, he is not beholden to the legion of special interests that make slime the streets of DC every day. Trump wants to attack the corruption that DC has become. This upcoming election is a referendum on the Swamp.

Image by AI.

Ned Cosby, a frequent contributor to American Thinker, is a former pastor, veteran Coast Guard officer, and a retired English high school teacher. His novel OUTCRY is a love story exposing the refusal of Christian leaders to report and discipline clergy who sexually abuse our young people. This work of fiction addresses crimes that are all too real. Cosby has also written RECOLLECTIONS FROM MY FATHER’S HOUSE, tracing his own odyssey from 1954 to the present. For more info, visit Ned Cosby.