The Embarrassing Thing About American Politics
- By Simple Politiks
- 12 July, 2012
- 3 Comments
I live in America so I can only speak for what I have seen with American politics. However, I have a feeling many other countries are not too different in this respect.
Our politicians… Do we have faith in them? I can almost guarantee you that a random person off of the street would answer that question with an immediate “No” without a second thought. Do you agree? It really isn’t that difficult to believe, especially after we hear about scandal after scandal on the news. It isn’t just the scandals either! It’s the partisan attitude in the White House, the team mentality within each political party. As I write this we are apparently in our most divisive moments of U.S. history, politically speaking. And as if that wasn’t enough, the American public hardly ever reaches a 20% approval rating for our own Congress, sometimes even lower than 10%! That’s a horrendous number and the incumbents should be ashamed! There are myriad reasons for these terrible numbers; political divisiveness certainly contributing to that big list. But the cause is key, not the effects, and I believe the cause is very simple: our politicians have stopped putting the American people first. Whether that means they have fallen to the ever powerful temptations of corruption, or they simply believe they have the answers and they are wrong. We’re screwed either way. Our politicians no longer have our interests in the #1 spot of the nation’s list of priorities. An incredibly disheartening phenomenon.
But why does it matter? Why am I even ranting about this subject if our politicians, for lack of a better word, suck (not all, there are certainly some good ones) ? Well, think about it! In theory, which people in a country have the greatest amount of power? The ones that run it, right? The people who make the laws and the people who decide where the government’s money goes. And these people should be revered and respected by a very large portion of the population because it only makes sense for a society to elect just members of society into office; people with integrity! That’s what a society needs and that is what a society should crave! But what do we have instead? A clusterfuck (excuse my French). Power hungry people serving selfish agendas instead of fighting for the very people that so happened to grace these people with their votes. It’s tragic. As a result of these people’s behavior, an honored position is now tarnished. In general there is little to no trust between the people with power and those without it. Instead our politicians could be considered as some of the slimiest scumbags in our society. At the very least they are often the ones who are most commonly associated with corruption. Does that raise any alarms? I’ll say it again:
The people that run the country are the ones who are most commonly referred to as corrupted.
Do you see how fundamentally wrong this is?!
That is not what our founding fathers intended when they created this country and that is not how a government or a country should run. There IS hope for politicians, there ARE people who, once elected, will continue to fight for Americans. But now the vile behavior of the weak and corrupted is more or less accepted. Sure, people will complain about the corruption when the subject is brought up, but after time passes the discussion is dropped and nothing sticks. That’s just the way it is, isn’t it? Wrong. The only way to change the general public’s opinion about these powerful people is if the general public decides to do something about it. We can’t just sit here and dismiss bad behavior without holding the politicians accountable for their actions. And the great thing about holding them accountable is that we actually can, we have the greatest tool at our disposal: our votes. Instead of accepting the bad behavior as I mentioned earlier, punish it by taking away your vote. Or by spreading awareness of a Congressman/woman’s wrongdoing. Maybe run for office yourself. Something, anything! The longer we wait for the problem to magically go away, the less likely we are in succeeding. Keep on top of things with your district. Stay educated. Act when you can. And good luck.
Copyright © 2013
One way to sharply change some of this actual and perceived corruption is to establish term limits. I truly believe the founders intended for our elected officials to serve and then go back to their lives. I do not believe the intent was to create careers. Washington DC has become the farm house kitchen from Orwell’s Animal Farm. Which makes the politicians the pigs, right? Just a joke…..
Yes I also believe that term limits will change the priorities in Congress. Unfortunately it will take some time before that idea gains enough traction with the public. Until then I don’t think the public pressure for the politicians will be great enough.
I am afraid it is the same in the UK, politicians are now in a job not a vocation, and they will protect their jobs ,how ever they can.
Your idea the you can vote out bad politicians is lovely but how many people vote, in the UK in 1945 73% voted in 2010 65% voted, it has gone as high as 78% and as low as 59%
I think that one powerful tool in recent times that can be used to shame politicians, to make comments directly to them is Twitter. I use it regularly to tell my Member of Parliament what the man on the street thinks about things. She may take no obvious notice but something must sink in.
We have politicians that were elected in to politics at the age of 28 and are still there at over 70, never done a real job in their lives.
You have to take a test to drive a car or pilot a plane but you can be President, Prime Minister or in the UK be Chancellor of the Exchequer and run the countries finances with no qualification what so ever. Our present Chancellor has been an MP for only nine years and has no financial back ground at all and is running our finances.
People I work with moan about politicians, when I say “Have you written to them to complain” they say no what is the point.
Sometimes I think it is a lost cause trying to shame them, now and again we get a little victory but on the whole they sail on regardless.