One complaint I read and hear about the pool of candidates for president from everyone is about the lack of quality. Why don't good people run for office any longer? If you were asked to run for office, would you? Let's take a moment and examine what someone who runs for office goes through.
1. How politicians are labeled.
Politicians are often labeled as cheats and liars. Mostly, this happens because it is perceived that people trade their votes for favors from supporters. Let's face it, this does happen, but this is not true of 90% of people who have served politically. It's the 10% who really are that give the whole profession a black eye. Even if you are perceived in the public eye as honest, people will still call you self-serving or find some way to belittle your character. If you are a decent person, do you want your good name dragged through the mud simply because of your job?
2. Party thuggery
If political parties were eliminated, it would be very difficult for people to win. Therefore, unless your name is Ross Perot, you can't win unless you join a party. Don't stray from the boat if you really want to win. You can be a pro-choice Republican, or a pro-life Democrat, but don't let the party leadership find out. If you rock the boat too much, don't expect support from the party rank and file, you RINO or DINO-whatever.
Party leaders, like Harry Reid, for example, are, in every sense of the word, thugs. When you try to represent the best interest of your constituents, you don't want to be told by a someone who is supposed to be a peer and a equal that you have to tow the line they lay out.
3. A lack of understanding of political roles on the part of the voting public.
Most Americans are happy to blame Congress and the President for everything that goes wrong in the country. But it is much more complicated than that. Most of what effects us from day to day, actually comes from either the state legislatures or your local city council and school board. Most people don't understand why 80-90 percent of Congress win re-election even though they have a 15% approval rate. (Hint, most US House races are decided once every 10 years.) The most important race that effects your day-to-day life is your state legislator, not the President.
So you want to run for the State House? Try convincing enough people that you matter. The President in more glamorous, and gets the media coverage. But most of the laws that affect your day to day, as well as the people who draw political boundaries, your state legislator, do so in relative anonymity. The more glamorous office gets most of the credit and most of the blame. What office would you run for.
There is nothing wrong with partisanship.
4. Going under the microscope.
Nobody cares about your sex life until you run for office. Then everybody wants to know everything. Why put your family through that?
5. Combative work environment
Would you want a job where you argue with half of your co-workers every single day? How about dealing with a member of the press who disagrees with you? And then you get to go home and face your constituency. Think of your toughest day at the office. Every day is like that for a politician.
6. The Ideal Candidate
No one measures up completely to this standard. And this standard is different for different people.
7. Money
It takes a lot of money to run for office. For many, a lot of your own money, at least to begin with. You have to raise money. You have to, for most people, take a leave of absence from your regular job to get elected. Once you win, most people take a CUT in pay?
I know that I am going to get crucified for this, but yes, people in office are not getting paid enough, unless you count the notoriety that comes with political service.
Here is a good example. Let's say that you are the vice president of a medium sized corporation. This is what most Tea Party people feel would be a good qualified candidate for Congress. You would give up your pay check of 400,000 to 700,000 per year to take a job that pays 174,000 per year. Who wants to take a job that requires a 75% pay cut?
If you want better people in office, you have to be willing to pay them more, not less.
Here are my solutions for the problem.
1. We have politically correct terms for everyone else. then we should also speak in kind terms for those in office. We should encourage respectful language for everyone, including politicians.
2. While I am not for term limits for office, I am for making rules that ensure that every senator and every house member are equal,
3. School house rock did a good job of letting us know how the national government works. We need more education of how state, county and city government works. State representatives and senators should be better known than most are.
4. Media outlets that present hearsay as news should be banned from access to those running for office. You should be required to prove what you report. Media should lead the way when it comes to respectful language and speech.
5. Family members are off limits.
6. Pay for members of congress, 75% of the average of your last five reported tax returns. No more, no less. If you want a raise, leave congress for at least 5 years and earn more money than you did in your job prior to running for office. For President, 85%. Pension is 50%.
Let me finish this post with one final thought. A boxer doesn't step into the ring without expecting to get punched by his opponent. However, it's not an anything goes proposition. It shouldn't be that way for politicians either.
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