Since the coup in 2000 that put George Bush in office, every single day I've said to myself, "there must be something in America’s drinking water." How many times can the Bush Administration slap us across our collective faces, punch us in the gut, and then kick us in the ribs before the general populace screams in outrage?
Polls show the American public is discontented with politicians in general, and a majority of Americans are so fed up with Bush that they can’t wait until next year’s election to end the national nightmare. But, discontent isn’t enough to activate the American public. They keep taking the abuse, and no brazen assault on the Constitution or unprecedented power grab in the name of a Unitary Executive can shake them out of their quiescence.
The only excuse I could find for such compliance was that “something had to be in the water." Well, there is something in the water allright--prozac! Antidepressant use in America is so rampant that remnants of the drugs are making their way into the nation’s ponds and rivers. Think for a moment how much Prozac or similar medicines have to be ingested and then passed into the sewer system for the active ingredient to be released into our rivers and ponds in such quantities that it would not only register in water quality tests, but also affect the breeding habits of wildlife living in those rivers.
Well, you don’t have to think about it too hard because The Centers for Disease Control has conveniently provided the data on antidepressant use. Adult use of antidepressant medication has increased by 48% between 1995 and 2002. Sixty one million doses were prescribed in 2001 alone; that’s even before the Bush years pushed everyone over the edge. Use by children is also on the rise, about 10% per year. In fact, the fastest growing group of users? Preschoolers aged 0-5 years! (link here)
When you consider the sheer number of “happy drugs” being prescribed, you have to wonder if the drugs aren't in some way suppressing the negative feelings of outrage that would bring people to the streets protesting and demanding government accountability and congressional control of an executive branch gone wild. And if you factor in a common side effect of antidepressants, short-term memory loss, it explains how the Bush Administration can keep up their hypocrisy and contradictions with so little political backlash. (It might also explain the inability of all administration employees to recall their meetings, actions, decisions or policies, but that discussion is for another day.)
What lesson can be learned from this? Maybe we Democrats should place political ads on medicine bottles. But if that were possible, I’m sure the Republicans would have thought of it already. No, the real lesson is that politics is just one more part of modern American life that leaves people unhappy and dissatisfied. The next president will not only need to address pressing issues like the Iraq occupation, the environmental crisis, the failing infrastructure and the waning middle class, he or she must also be a beacon of hope and promise that will reach deep into American’s souls so that all Americans can believe in our country, our leaders, and ourselves again. Americans must know that the pursuit of happiness, even without drugs, will not be an endless, unfulfilled endeavor.