Dangerous Factions

I wish I’d written this:

When up a dangerous faction starts,
With wrath and vengeance in their hearts;
By solemn League and Cov'nant bound,
To ruin, slaughter, and confound;
To turn religion to a fable,
And make the government a Babel;
Pervert the law, disgrace the gown,
Corrupt the senate, rob the crown;
To sacrifice [our country’s] glory,
And make her infamous in story:
When such a tempest shook the land,
How could unguarded Virtue stand?

From “Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift,” Jonathan Swift, 1700 something.

Could anyone better describe the desperate plight of today’s politics?

Everything old is new again, and there is nothing new in the wreckers and greed-mongers who these days fill their sleek pelted pockets with booty paid for with the blood of other peoples children.

Some ages in their peril were blessed with such as Dr. Swift, the Dean; others and ours sadly included are left with weak heroes, meager defenses and a general failure of courage to oppose the strong.

Me? No sir, I’ll step not forward, that cup passes from me effortlessly, I have neither the courage nor the skill to fight the power that ruins us.

I have only a limited intellect that serves me well to examine things in shallow fashion and discourse glibly on the same, but I am denied the great wit and lucidity required to fight society’s ills.

I have only the emotion to feel the danger and horror; I lack the wisdom to understand it and the words to describe it.

Step up, anyone?