You had it easy. I was raised there. My parents moved there in the mid 1960s. They chose to live in the City. I went to those public schools. They were nothing to write home about.
When I moved out of my parent’s house, it was to a place where my vote was something that might be worth courting.
The city is filled with people who are so full of their own religion or philosophy that they actively deny reality on a daily basis. That goes for Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative, and even religions of any sort.
I grew jaded as bible thumpers would accost me on my ride home from school on the city’s busses. I was used to the idea that there were depraved people around me who would steal my stuff in a heartbeat if they could. I read papers, not just the daily stuff, but also the papers going back to before the civil war of this or that scandal. I was used to the idea that political office is an opportunity for corruption.
What it taught me is something that Dr. Thomas Sowell noticed too: People who seek a utopia of any sort are also subject to the same evil that they claim to fight. They’re literally willing to do anything for their cause. It is a classic evil of the ends justifying the means.
Like all political cities, DC is a magnet for jerks like that of all beliefs, politics, and causes. The purgatory that you noticed is just a tip of the iceberg.
