A scandal has begun to plague Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas. No, he has not been manufacturing methamphetamine in the seedier parts of Wichita.

Instead, it has been revealed that this sitting United States Senator does not actually live in the state where voters first sent him to Washington, D.C. in 1997.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Roberts admitted that he does not own a home of his own in Kansas. Instead, he stays at the country club home of two wealthy supporters whenever he is visiting the area.

I would love to tell you that this is an isolated incident. I would love to say that members of Congress care about their constituents and are deeply in touch with their concerns and opinions on today’s issues, but I do not want to lie to you.

The reality is that Pat Roberts is not the only creature of the capital that is sucking the lifeblood out of America.

In 2010, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana was defeated by a challenger supported by the Tea Party movement. Like Roberts, Lugar did not live in the state that he claimed to represent.

According to The Huffington Post, he sold his home shortly after being elected in 1977 and was bafflingly re-elected for decades all while a resident of a completely different region of the country.

I hate to say it, but America is now similar to Medieval Europe. The era of the competent public servant is long gone. In its place, a new regime has emerged.

One where people run for office so that they can use the House of Representatives or the United States Senate as a means to enhance their already vast personal fortunes.

According to a report from the Center for Responsive Politics, more than half of all members of Congress were millionaires in 2014.

That would be fine with me, but there is one problem. Despite their vast wealth, these people still earn salaries in the six figure range. The average salary for a US Senator or Representative in 2014 was $174,000.

In this era of economic instability, that knowledge almost makes me want to vomit. One would be hard pressed to find a better item that proves the people we vote for are fundamentally disconnected from all of us.

Unfortunately, this awful status quo will be hard to change. The Democrips and Rebloodicans have a lot of power in this nation.

Yes, I did just compare the main political parties in this nation to two terrible street gangs. They both act solely in their own self-interest and do great damage to the people they claim they want to help.

They can be beaten. For the survival of this magnificent nation, they must be beaten. If they are not, I’ll just run for office in the future. Get your Pretzer 2048 signs ready, just in case.

-Evan Pretzer is a junior communication major from from Weyburn, Saskatchewan. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of Student Publications.