It might be fun, just for a sec, to talk about what we U.S. citizens should expect from the people we elect to represent us in local, state and federal offices.
Because we voters have made so many dreadful mistakes in this regard over the past 70 years or so, one might look around today and ask, how in the hell did so many unqualified people get elected in this country?
Putting aside for a moment that the professionals in the two major parties have conspired to create a system, on purpose, that lacks accountability, innovation and choice, and that minority rule is the rule—and not the exception—that favors both parties, even those facts cannot erase the mistakes or excuse voters for being this stupid.
We are talking crack-smoking stupid here. These people are so many hundreds of miles from being the best and the brightest of American life that all we can do now is laugh, were it not so painful.
So, what should we want in our representatives? Education? Experience? Commitment to democratic ideals, which would include involving people of a wide variety of political philosophies in decision making? That would be a start.
Basic knowledge about the global economy and about making the taxpayer dollar go as far as it can? Sure. Ability to work together to solve our most challenging problems, large scale and small? Of course. Also, honest, hard-working, intelligent, ethical, trustworthy and selfless.
We could go on. The problem is that almost no one, particularly in Congress and The White House, has a single one of these qualities. Think about that. No one with minimum standard qualifications. We’re talking about 100 senators; more than 400 members of the House, including our beloved speaker; the entire executive branch; and the Supreme Court.
There isn’t a single person we can trust that I know of. All are bought and paid for by one interest group or another. This is Politics, Incorporated. If this is an exaggeration, it ain’t much of an exaggeration.
Rather than worry about how we got here, I think it might be time to decide what we do next as a society, because this crap is going to get much worse before it gets better.
Craig Corsini lives and writes in San Rafael.
