Ideal Politician - an Oxymoron?

What makes a good politician?

Is this the oxymoron of oxymorons? Some people would say yes - right up there with an honest oil CEO, tobacco executive, or a helpful tax collector. I am trying to give the lawyers of this world a break and leave them out of this, but since many political figures have legal backgrounds, they can't escape entirely.

It seems to me that there are three major characteristics of politicians that most people dislike. I say most, because there are many people who have simply come to accept politics for what it is - dirty - so what is to dislike? Needless to say a lot of them are politicians - or wannabes.

1. The first is simply that lying is perfectly acceptable. You lie during a campaign to get into office. Then if you win you lie to stay there. Once elected there will always be extenuating circumstances which you could not have foreseen that rationalize any broken promises. If you lose and are in opposition, then you spend all of your time trying to expose the leader's lies and imply that if you are voted in next time you would never be guilty of it yourself. Liar!
2. The second is that in order to get into office you need a fortune to run your campaign (of lies.) It makes you totally indebted to the very wealthy people who finance you. This will obligate you to do the things that they want which include of course making them even richer and even more privileged.
3. The third is again accepted as part of the game. You find as much dirt as you can on your opponent and make the most of it. If you can't find it then a healthy show of characteristic number one will suffice. Lie! If you have lots of number two then you can pay someone to find the dirt. Let's face it - we always hear a lot of number two in most campaigns even without donors. You must as well, claim that you are only responding to the opposition for indulging in this practice. They did it first! Sounds just like a kid in the school yard. No surprise there.

The acceptance of all of this was particularly noticeable in the many people with whom I worked over the years who came from much older countries abroad. Europe and Asia come to mind. I understand this. Their ancestors have experienced governments and leaders who have been guilty of horrific acts far worse than lying, taking bribes, and mudslinging.

They thought that I and my countrymen were simply naive children with our lofty ideals. I am beginning to think that they were right. One man from the Ukraine would not buy lottery tickets. Since they were government run, they must be rigged. Shortly after that there was a big scandal over retailers cheating on lotteries!

How do we remedy this? That's a question that's as old as time.  If we fix these problems we can then move on to world peace and the origin of mankind - sorry "personkind". I must be politically correct. The whole idea here is to attempt to level the playing field. Joe or Susie Average should have just as equal an opportunity to run for office as Mr. or Mrs. Millionaire / Billionaire.

I invite you to read my article on "Politics - New Ideas to Try". See link below.
New Political Ideas