Criticism of Politicians

**Beirut** · 07-20-2008, 16:06

Originally Posted by Evil_Maniac From Mars

5) The political class, as a whole, does a good job. This does not mean consultation of the people is not necessary, but that politicians as a whole should not be condemned.

They do an adequate job, not necessarily a good job. They, as a whole, as a matter of course, allow a mountain of abuses to occur and, indeed, are often the root cause of the abuses. That being true, and I think it is, it allows us to condemn the whole rotten lot of them with the most colourful epithets the language affords.

**Evil_Maniac From Mars** · 07-20-2008, 16:40

Originally Posted by Beirut

They do an adequate job, not necessarily a good job. They, as a whole, as a matter of course, allow a mountain of abuses to occur and, indeed, are often the root cause of the abuses. That being true, and I think it is, it allows us to condemn the whole rotten lot of them with the most colourful epithets the language affords.

I agree with the first part. For the second part, points one, two, three, and four apply. Politicians are not human scum, they're ordinary people trying to do their job to the best of their ability. There are, unfortuntately, a few career-minded scum who don't really care for the nation, but I'd say that's almost as much a fault of modern society than the fault of the politician - because when it comes down to it, an awful lot of people are exactly like that.

**rory_20_uk** · 07-20-2008, 19:41

Politicians:

Never apologise for anything or in some cases even admit to the bloody obvious - let alone take responsibility for it. Head of department yes, responsibility for department? No.
View that their privacy is the same as anyone else's
Never feel the need to reduce their salaries even when extolling others to do so.

I'm not sure what they are doing a good job on. Intelligence dossiers? Not really. Managing the economy? Nope - good at basking in a global boom and saving nothing for the recession.

Politicians need to get chosen at local level to stand and then enter Westminster. If they decide to have a conscience they will get nowhere. So the ones who are honest fall by the wayside and the ones that get ahead are the backstabbing, double dealing fairweather friends we've got.

Would I be electable? I'm not sure. Could I do a better job? I'm sure that I could do so more than at least 90% of them.

**LittleGrizzly** · 07-21-2008, 00:14

Im sure alot start out with plenty of good intentions, but if theres one job to wear you down and turn you into a cycnical guy who just does what he has to then its politics.... Its the job rather than the people i would say

maybe partially a combanation of the type of people who go for the job... ambitous greedy power hungry... ect.

**Gregoshi** · 07-21-2008, 22:58

Originally Posted by LittleGrizzly

Im sure alot start out with plenty of good intentions, but if theres one job to wear you down and turn you into a cycnical guy who just does what he has to then its politics.... Its the job rather than the people i would say

That's kind of my take on it too LG. When you are constantly wined and dined and treated special in order to influence your decisions, it must gradually rub off and reinforce over time the feeling that you are above others.

Probably one of the most disheartening things I saw about our political system was during a visit to DC. We were walking around the Capitol building and there was a Congressman (don't know who) being interviewed in front of cameras and lights...and he was standing on a wooden box to look taller. I checked, it wasn't a soapbox.

As trivial as that seems, it said volumes to me about appearances over substance. However, I'm undecided if that reflected poorly on the state of the politicians or on we voters. Probably both.

**Evil_Maniac From Mars** · 07-21-2008, 23:21

Let's recap some points:

1) Politicians lie and act "fake" to keep their jobs.

2) Politicians don't take responsibility when they're wrong (which I disagree with, as quite a few politicians do take responsibility - but never mind that for now).

3) The job wears you down.

4) The system sucks, but they're not trying to fix it.

What do all of these points have in common? Exactly. They're what almost every single person does on a fairly regular basis. The expectations we have of politicians are almost superhuman, far beyond the capabilities of the vast majority of people.

**Alexander the Pretty Good** · 07-22-2008, 03:59

What do all of these points have in common? Exactly. They're what almost every single person does on a fairly regular basis. The expectations we have of politicians are almost superhuman, far beyond the capabilities of the vast majority of people.

Make a poor car, have an off year. Make a bad law, imprison thousands, tax millions. If they can't live up to the challenge (and I don't think anyone who is electable could) then they should be granted minimal authority.

**Husar** · 07-22-2008, 04:13

If they're not superhuman then why do they sign up for the job?

Personally I don't remember nor plan doing #1 and #4 seems directly linked to it. Since #4 is the essence of their job, fixing it would most likely fix a great deal of #1, that means if they actually did what we pay them for then there wouldn't be as much of a need to lie.
Or in other words if you paid someone to fix your toilet and he still didn't get the job done after two years, would you keep paying him and say he's alright?