Politicians

This week I listened to a local politician address the group that I was a part of. He started off by telling us that he wasn't a politician. "Ah", I thought, "starting off with a lie". Anyone who enters the electoral fray is, by definition, a politician. To get elected an office-seeker has to build a base, hustle for contributions, and tell people what they want to hear so that they will vote for him. So, if you're in any elected office higher up the ladder than town council in a small town, you'll have to be a politician. 

A mistake that many people make in evaluating office holders is that they believe that they are required to reflect the will of the people in their policies and positions and vote the way the majority of their constituents would like. Of course going too much against the will of the majority will result in not getting reelected, but there is no real guardrails to ensure that an elected representative will respect the majority's views, or even follow through on any promises made during the election campaign. It may have always been this way, but politicians lately seem to act as if the fact of their election, even if it's by a razor-thin margin, is a mandate to carry out whatever actions they want to. One Nebraska politician characterized his election, which admittedly was by a large margin, as "Nebraskans spoke with one voice". Unless he got 100% of the votes or close to it, Nebraskans spoke with at least two voices, since somebody voted for his opponent.  

The local politician that I listened to this week went on to boast about how much loved Nebraska, but followed that statement up with "I'm the [his title] and I'm going to do what I want". Maybe some folks in the room were shocked or surprised at that, but this politician's penchant for making decisions based on preconceived notions, religious beliefs, and homespun wisdom, rather than evidence and facts, was no surprise He went on to justify a decision that negatively affected many in the group present, not with any real world specifics, but with analogies and perhaps a weird reference to Mother Theresa. 

A true leader would make decisions based on what was best for the people, not force his own ideology on people, not cater to the faction that put him in office. I'm well aware that a leader like that is pretty rare, and that elected officials are going to make decisions that I don't agree with or like for a myriad of reasons. But I expect policies based on thinking, not dreams and hallucinations.