"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
- Plato
I guess things haven't changed that much.
this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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Tbh, I've thought about it, who hasn't. But don't think I have the money to run a campaign. It should be illegal to use your own funds to campaign, let people just use an amount of public funds for the purpose and that's it, we all get the same "free speech" instead of some having more "free speech" than others depending on their wallet size. (Fuck Citizens United)
Not even sending the averages or the good enoughs.
Just the most racist and homophobic. We are REALLY good at sending them to Congress.
Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck.
Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens.
This is the best we can do, folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders.
Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe... it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like... the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. Fuck Hope.'
-George Carlin
He missed a nuance. A certain type of person wants power, is successful at getting it, and good at keeping it. It's the worst of the worst.
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The Tea Party movement really started this. It was like uneducated voters got together and went "Here's a candy-date that doesn't know nothing! They're just like me! VOTED!"
They didn't start it at all, they just modernized it. Reagan was clearly not bright and yet kept getting higher and higher into office.
I really hate to break it. But people have been fucking dumb in governments since before Chieftains were the common official. Source: four good roman emperors.
You mean Brett Kavanaugh isn’t one of our brightest legal minds! Say it aint so!
Not saying you're wrong, but...Brett's not in Congress...
He was confirmed by the upper house of Congress though, in spite of the numerous credible allegations and the fact that he showed without a shadow of a doubt that he didn't have the calm and even-tempered psychology a fair judge is supposed to have.
I know, he’s just a great example.
No shit. Political success does not required being the best and brightest. It requires being the loudest with the deepest pockets
Smart people don’t make good puppets for corporations and foreign governments.
What a world we might live in if all the politicians even understood electricity and the electron.
And the internet.
What do you mean? It's a series of tubes.
Please, no flash photography. You’ll harm the internet. https://youtu.be/Vywf48Dhyns?si=n9FQZnkw2Pr8XAyQ
fyi, the ?si= part of that link is a tracker. Google will know who you referred to that video
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But instead we live in a world where the politicians know what plants crave.
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Merkel was a scientist and it showed
They don’t want the best and brightest
They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.
Well, he is not wrong. They send politicians there instead of people who actually had a job, who had to work for a living, who actually have experience of being a normal citizen.
I for one don't think there is a single thing wrong with the idea of a professional politician. The problem is the legalized bribery that comes in the form of campaign donations.
Agreed. If you have extremely inexperienced politicians, your end result is that they are easily manipulated by whatever or whoever gets to whisper in their ear, like said lobbyists.
While bribery is one of the big problems, it is often based on the fact that a politician has been around (and groomed) for a long time. That's one reason why a professional politician is a danger to society. The other point is that most politicians have never experienced real life.
Look at the US: guys from rich homes, having studied law and politics at prestige universities where they started building up on political contacts, and have been nothing but politician since then. Some have had political offices for 40, 50 years. And not a single hour of real life experience.
Sadly it's a reflection of the values Americans hold. In that sense, we reap what we sow.
We certainly don't want the ignorant populist candidate like Donald which was a knee-jerk reaction to the very sentiment you raise here (not to be confused with an educated populist like Bernie).
I think, "dAE hAtE pOliTiCiaNS?" misdirects our focus, when the real focus is: why do we keep electing these people? Why do we think businessmen and lawyers are the apex of society and not, say, teachers and scientists?
Talking about politicians generally misses the fact that the vast majority of our problems for decades has stemmed from one single party and one single archaic ideology.
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Nothing will ever get done in this political climate.
I love this guy.
If you like stupid people in high places you’ll love the government
The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.
That's the crux of the matter. If you want the job, you shouldn't be allowed to have it. It would be better to make qualified people be forced to do it on a frequently rotating basis. Kinda like a draft for educated, moral citizens.
The scary thing is, they just might be.
As an american, I can confirm these are not our best and brightest. The best and brightest have either started leaving or they are seduced by big business and paid absurd (for working class) salaries to ignore the problems of the country.
Alternatively: They are 100% not interested in holding a position of power and dealing with beaurocratic drama garbage nonsense (which makes them objectively a better choice than the people we get)
So they ARE smart
You just wrote "engineer" in so many words.
Our political system is excellent in weeding out almost anyone who genuinely wants to make a difference and leaving you with the people who are simply the most personally ambitious.
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Fetterman is right to think so.
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