Don’t Trust Politicians
I love politics, I loath politicians.
I’ve had a little fun over the last few days breaking the balls of a Democrat whose love of a politician, in my opinion, clouded his judgement. From the moment Congressman Eric Massa stepped down amid allegations of sexual harrasment, something did not add up. When Massa went from zero to sixty on the scale of humbled concession to outraged victimization and as he began spewing venom toward his own Party, the credibility of his claims that he was simply leaving for health and the toll an investigation would take on his family became less believable. As the logic was sucked out of the story, the Democrat whose balls I was breaking began attacking anyone and everyone who dared point it out. His love of Massa’s politics and feelings of personal connection to the candidate made him lose any sense of reason. He too began spiraling into his own sideshow of weird logic and outrage, mirroring Massa’s.
Last night the story developed further as now former Congressman Massa appeared on Glenn Beck. An hour of rambling, silky jokes, staged talking points and further destruction of the logic in his decision making and erosion of his timelines, served only to destroy what little credibility Massa had left.
Falling in love with a politician, regardless of their Party, will only end in heartbreak.
Democrats are waking up to this point thanks to an Obama administration that is anything but what they voted for. Local Democrats who pumped their heart and soul into Eric Massa’s campaign are watching their time, energy and dedication squandered. Republicans just had a twelve year example with Bush, McCain and the Republican lead Congress and every day there is another story that should make us seriously doubt the crop of 2012 Republican presidential candidates.
Yet I continue to see followers of both parties give up logic, reason and decency to defend their love of politicians. They give them heart and soul and receive little in return. If we want true change, if we seek better leaders, we must replace lust with skepticism, affection with stone cold accountability and love with the constant threat of rebellion.
Politicians are not rock stars or Gods, they are elected representatives of the people. We give them a great deal of wealth and power in their work but should give them neither as reward for their service. The work is their reward! As temporary public servants who believe in our nation, they should require no other. We need to begin treating these offices and their occupants in a way that they should expect and assume no other reward will come.
The issue is not campaign finance or special interest but a nation that can be largely divided between those who don’t care enough to vote and those who vote caring too much about superficial things that continually pair them to the wrong political mate. It is one thing to excitingly support a representative of one’s ideology and another to ruthlessly ignore their clearly visible flaws and corruption just to advance that ideology and cling to sentiment for the politician. This process leads to temporary advance but long term defeat.
There are few politicians deserving of God-like worship. Washington, Jefferson, Reagan, Jackson, Lincoln. We easily recognize their greatness but know they too were flawed and made plenty of mistakes. They were not dietys just the closest thing we have had on Earth. We long to add to the list of dynamic leaders so much that severly flawed men like John Kennedy become whitewashed and distorted while lesser personalities who are technically more deserving leaders like Calvin Coolidge are ignored.
In short my message is simple, stop looking for love in politicians, you will only be let down. Don’t trust them either, not with your continued money, time or energy. Not unless or until they show you, repeatedly, they are deserving of it and even then only give with hesitancy and skepticism! They will fail you and the country but you owe them little when they do. They are replaceable and should be treated as such and defended only when they are truly deserving both as leaders and human beings.
