03 July 2011
Politicians Aren’t Gonna Lead Until Forced
It is indeed naïve for President Obama to believe, as he said in his June 29, 2011, White House press conference, “that leaders are gonna lead.” The elected representatives of the people in Congress are more interested in keeping their jobs. They know that the people who elected them are like putty in the hands of persuaders like cable television broadcasters, corporate employer communicators, and their comparatively wealthy clients, customers, or hiring parties. All of these partisans pay for the campaigns that keep Senators and House Members in office until they are rewarded with lucrative consulting and lobbying contracts afterwards.
The voting public doesn’t make up its mind on the basis of “what’s right.” They are more interested in the constant entertainment provided by television news as well as by the income from their jobs and enterprises that finance the other diversions they pursue. Desperate politicians understand that. They also know that the key to their own success is following the money and catering to the self-interest of those partisans, whose largest concerns with the government are how much it buys from them and how much it costs them, i.e. taxes.
Government officials don’t lead when they fear for their jobs; they pander. Moreover, they are not elected to “do the right thing.” Prosecutors are. Politicians do the right thing only when they have no choice—when the whole house of cards is about to collapse. Until then, voters will put up with politicians who take advantage of them, who act with their own short-term reelection goals in mind until they are faced with the reality that the creditworthiness of their employer, the U.S. government, ultimately depends on their making far-sighted decisions. The CEO’s of the country’s major financial institutions had to learn a similar lesson in the sub-prime mortgage debacle. Now it’s the turn of our politicians.
It is indeed naïve for President Obama to believe, as he said in his June 29, 2011, White House press conference, “that leaders are gonna lead.” The elected representatives of the people in Congress are more interested in keeping their jobs. They know that the people who elected them are like putty in the hands of persuaders like cable television broadcasters, corporate employer communicators, and their comparatively wealthy clients, customers, or hiring parties. All of these partisans pay for the campaigns that keep Senators and House Members in office until they are rewarded with lucrative consulting and lobbying contracts afterwards.
The voting public doesn’t make up its mind on the basis of “what’s right.” They are more interested in the constant entertainment provided by television news as well as by the income from their jobs and enterprises that finance the other diversions they pursue. Desperate politicians understand that. They also know that the key to their own success is following the money and catering to the self-interest of those partisans, whose largest concerns with the government are how much it buys from them and how much it costs them, i.e. taxes.
Government officials don’t lead when they fear for their jobs; they pander. Moreover, they are not elected to “do the right thing.” Prosecutors are. Politicians do the right thing only when they have no choice—when the whole house of cards is about to collapse. Until then, voters will put up with politicians who take advantage of them, who act with their own short-term reelection goals in mind until they are faced with the reality that the creditworthiness of their employer, the U.S. government, ultimately depends on their making far-sighted decisions. The CEO’s of the country’s major financial institutions had to learn a similar lesson in the sub-prime mortgage debacle. Now it’s the turn of our politicians.
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