A politically incorrect view of PC

Are you sick of political correctness? So am I. I'm sick of politicians who speak reverently of God and religion but cynically violate the basic values of that same religion. Those who pose with their families but pass legislation that hurts the majority of American families. Who talk about "getting tough on crime" but make sure their fellow politicians can be criminals and not be punished.\nI know that isn't what most people mean when they use the term PC. But why do politicians say the things I described above? Because they know it will keep them in office. That's politically correct, folks. Straight and simple.\nBut PC doesn't stop there. How about business leaders who call for "free enterprise" while they're lining up for corporate welfare. Or union leaders who claim to be fighting for their workers, when they instead do most of their fighting for their own fat salaries. Or professional organizations (the American Medical Association, for example) who tell us how much they work to improve our lives, while maintaining a critical shortage of rural doctors because more doctors in general would threaten their high incomes. Or universities who tell parents and state legislatures they care a great deal about teaching, but then place little value on teaching when evaluating their faculty. That's politics in a broader sense; those claims are PC.\nBut being PC doesn't stop there, either. Because in truth, we are all politicians in the broader sense: we all have agendas we're trying to promote and resources we're trying to accumulate to do so. Address your professor as Professor, dress up for a job interview or to meet someone's parents, say what you think THEY want to hear, and be deferential, polite, and complimentary. Heck, we do it with friends, housemates, teammates, fellow employees, and family. Let's say a friend tries to cook a nice dinner for you and other friends. And it just didn't turn out well. If your friend says, "I'm afraid it didn't turn out well," almost all of us know better than to say, "You're right. It's pretty bad." That would hurt your friend's feelings, and your other friends would think you're a jerk.\nYou say something like, "No, this is great!" That's being politically correct. It's not what you really think. Later, you might say to one of your friends, "What WAS that stuff?" And laugh about it.\nBut not in front of the friend who made the dinner. In short, almost all of us are PC, all the time. It's just second nature to us. And it's necessary.\nBut that leaves a question. Why do we typically use the term PC to refer to words and actions that are respectful of or simply recognize, for examples, people who are black, or homosexual, or women, or mentally ill, or Mexican, or Wiccan, or are in wheelchairs? All those examples I gave above -- the politicians, business leaders, union leaders, and even you -- how come we don't hear others saying about them with scorn, "Man, that is so PC!"\nI'm not sure, but let me offer a possible explanation. Basically, we resent having to share power with groups who until recently had been treated as marginal to mainstream society (or still are treated as such). In addition, one important avenue for feeling good about yourself, is to feel you belong to a group that is superior to others. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it is very common. It's important to us, to know there are inferior people. We don't want to let them go. So we use the term PC to try to keep those groups marginal, and to keep them inferior. I have to congratulate us. It's a very politically correct strategy.