The more things change, the more they stay the same. If you don’t believe me, let’s take a look at the year’s events.

In January, the Democrats nominated, for all practical purposes, a rich white man to run against another rich white man. As usual, working people were not represented and were given the typical Democratic Party lip service. That same month at the Ames Republican caucus, local Republicans shot down a proposed balanced budget plank. Why? Not only does the GOP oppose balanced budgets (history backs me up on this), but its own voters follow suit.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. In April, there was another riot and the birth of another disappointing task force. Government of the Student Body President Sophia Magill sold out the student body, giving us yet another worthless GSB president. Please resign, Sophia.

In June, President Bush gave us another lesson in dishonesty. Quoting a paper written by some college student, Bush asserted that Cuban President Fidel Castro welcomes sex tourism to Cuba. It was later revealed that the original quote had been fabricated by the student and in addition, taken out of context by Bush — exposing the sheer depravity of the current administration. Bush is willing to use and manipulate whatever sources — no mater how pitiful — to justify equally pitiful policies like the Cuban embargo and war against Iraq.

In July, the actor and conservative governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger (or was it Ronald Reagan?) created an uproar over comments made. Soon after, the Boy Scouts visited Ames — reminding me quite well of my own peers when I was in the Boy Scouts years ago. The winner of the “Stop Nicolai on campus to share your own Boy Scout encounter” contest goes to the proud receiver of this quote: “How come the bitches here aren’t friendly?” It’s almost as if they tried to make a bad impression.

Then around early September, Bush said we need to make terrorists “less acceptable in parts of the world” while simultaneously allowing three anti-Cuba terrorists into the country.

And do you remember that militarist the Democrats put up to challenge Bush? He went down just like Gore did in 2000. In that year, Florida’s Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, was also the state’s election chairwoman for the Bush/Cheney campaign. That’s pretty convenient, don’t you think? This time it was Ohio, whose Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell, was also, conveniently, co-chairman of the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign. No wonder there were so many “errors” and “discrepancies” in the voting process.

Indeed, history repeats itself. Our political “leadership” is bound to hang us all out to dry when the two major parties are both pro-capitalism and thus defined solely by self-interest. It is no different with Sophia Magill, who has a resume and personal standing with the ruling class to put before students. The solution, to break this cycle, is to seize government power for ourselves.