I respect politicians and elites, because I know they have an important and difficult role to play in society. They have to make decisions that affect the lives of millions of people, often in complex and uncertain situations where they have to make compromises. They have to manage crises, conflicts, emergencies and change. They have to find solutions that are effective, equitable and sustainable. They have to deal with criticism, pressure, threats and even attacks from those who disagree with them or want to destabilize them. They must also assume their responsibilities before the law and before public opinion.
I don't believe that all politicians and elites are corrupt, thieves and thugs, as populists think. I believe that most of them are honest, competent and dedicated, and that they try to do their best for the common good. I believe that corruption, theft and thuggery are in the minority and should be severely punished by the law. I think populists are wrong to generalize and demonize all politicians and elites, because they seek to manipulate people's emotions and anger for their own benefit.
I recognize that politicians and elites aren't perfect. I know they can make mistakes, errors, . I know they can't satisfy everyone or solve every problem. I know they also have their limits, their weaknesses, their contradictions. But I don't judge them with contempt or hatred. I respect them with lucidity.
Am I the only one here who respects politicians and elites, without thinking they're all thugs and corrupt?
Nope, you are not the only one. This will have to be a short answer as I am on vacation and just check in on the site maybe once a day - "Hi" from the whole crew by the way.
Anyhow, as someone who has worked in politics for over 30 years, including stints with four Members of the U. S. House of Representatives, what you come to find is that politicians in general are like every other human being. Some are good at what they do. Some not. Some are honest and hardworking, some are egomaniacs who cannot tear themselves away from their own image in the mirror.
As the saying goes, it takes all kinds and most politicians reflect the people they represent, both good and bad, flaws and virtues and all. Oh, and just for the record, I worked for two House Members who were gold. Personable, hard working, intelligent and who cared about the people they represented and the issues they wrestled with. Issues, by the way, that are much harder than a self-satisfied public that often wants contradictory things, can begin to imagine.
Also, I worked for a Member, now retired, who was, to be totally candid about it, a sleeze ball. His understanding of the issues was shallow and more about feelings than thoughts. He also cheated on his wife.
So, as you can tell, you meet all kinds. The public's problem is that it wants often contradictory things and will throw a temper tantrum when it does not get what they think they deserve. (Usually assuming they deserve whatever they want, whenever they want it and should not be expected to pay for it or make the necessary trade-offs to get it.)
As to elites, in grown-up world, elites, properly understood, represent a standard of excellence. Indeed, even in a democracy. As Burke argued, in a democracy the people do not decide, they decide which elites will decide.
Not surprising. Ask your average man on the street how to adjust the inflation rate in technical detail and their eyes are apt to glaze over. Such work is the province of those who are educated and trained in dealing in such issues.
Yet, elites are often resented because they can do what the general public cannot and the public resents being dependent on elites. This, at the cultural level, tends to come and go. Thus, we get populist phases - such as the one the Western world is broadly experiencing right now - and phases where elites are accepted and even honored. (See WWII and its' aftermath - a war that could not have been won by amateurs.)
So put me down in the fan club. Grant that all human beings are flawed and even the very best will not always live up to expectations. However, particularly at the moment, those expectations are not always rooted in the complexities of life.
Oh I thought you had left gag for some reason. I'm glad to hear from you , I hope you and your family are well , give them hugs for me and take care of yourselves. š
I am going to violently agree and disagree with you.
I do agree that nearly all politicians have a passion for improving life in their countries and put a lot of their own life into it. That is quiet something especially when half the country will be vilifying them.
It is seldom that an Australian Prime Minister becomes beloved. There have been two post WW2, maybe three. One of the most beloved - Bob Hawke - wasn't defeated at the ballot box. No. His own party kicked him out. Doing a good job is not respected by your own side and not enough to keep your job. His replacement who wasn't liked, managed to win the next election but the electorate picked up their baseball bats for the next and showed their dislike. He cried like a little baby as he conceded.
The other beloved PM was John Howard. It was with a distinct sense of sadness that the electorate voted against him for a "lite" version of him. He even lost his own seat in Parliament. His replacement, sobriquet Rudd The Dud, didn't last a full term before his own party terminated him.
NO POLITICIAN does the job to be popular and loved. All Credos & Honor to them.
*** End violent agreement ***
Whilst we might hope for rational political discourse, it is precisely our god given right to insult and vilify politicians that makes & keeps us a democracy. After Rudd The Dud was knifed by Julia Gillard, the electorate was angry because it resented that it was prevented from doing the knifing itself. Our first female PM made bad decisions and soon the placards 'Ditch The Witch' went up. There were claims we shouldn't insult female PM's but we weren't having any of that interfering with our god given democratic rights.
It is an essential part of democracy in my view. Opposition can & does get it wrong. If it doesn't resonate, it rebounds. The electorate is quite capable of punishing.
I disagree with disparaging populism. Democratic politics essentially have to be popular! The Anglosphere seems to like two dominant parties and if both dominants have bipartisian policies that will screw some of the people all of the time - deindustrialising jobs for example - that is when the deplorables strike back. As indeed I think they should even if it offends the intelligensia.
For a democracy to work, there has to be something in it for every body. You just can't screw some of the people all of the time.
Iām at the stage where I recognize and understand that our leaders are making the best possible choices for the majority, because any decision they make that effects people will be met with backlash in some way, shape, or form. I understand that their jobs are incredibly demanding and difficult and that they are working those jobs to the best of their ability to appeal to the largest group of people.
However, this does not free them from criticism. Yes, putting up anti-homeless measures outside buildings prevents homeless people from driving away potential consumers, but this is also an incredibly uncompassionate way to handle the homelessness problem. Thereās also plenty of gray areas that can be ignored in different laws and why theyāre made and what theyāre made for as itās never cut and dry. I live in a state where they tried to ban being trans in public, this was an artificial panic made to encourage donations and funding for future campaigns to ensure they keep their seats, it didnāt matter that the ban was blocked by a judge two weeks before it went into effect because they got what they wanted. The world of politics is incredibly complicated in ways I donāt fully understand but that doesnāt mean Iām not allowed to criticize those choices and the effects they have on marginalized groups.
The older you get the more elections you see and the more you realize that even if there are honest politicians, they are unknowable and inconsequential compared to the dishonest ones.
This is more and more true of the ones that preside over ever larger governments, because theses governments themselves become ever more unknowable and uncontrollable by any honesty politician.
That in turn simply means they are ever more filled with people making the practical choices who generally can do what they want, which is not a recipe for honesty.
At that point the dishonesty of the politician is not in whether or not they would like to use that power to make things better but simply whether or not they keep insisting upon driving a car while blind knowing they can't control it.
To that end there are almost no honest politicians, particularly in more distant anyone to whom they might answer Washington. As almost all of them ran for office because they wanted to run things.
Your mistake is perhaps not merely in your ignorance having seen soo few real elections, and results. But having never lived in freedom without theses systems, you actually beleive the premise that we must have an ungovernable goverment. That we as such put politicians in impossible situations, when it was in fact the politicians who put themselfs in theses situations.
The entire system is built on corruption. A politician spends the majority of their time raising money for their party. The more they raise (from special interests), the more successful they are. If they try to do the best for voters, they will get nowhere and fail to get reelected.
In the end, almost every politician is a self-serving salesman/con man.
I do to a degree during campaigns most likely through their teeth But is it not interesting that biden regime is trying to lock up his opponent then go on TV and say he can't win Our President is nothing but a joke to us the we people and to the whole world If we people are are called by his name Jesus to turn from our wicked ways and ask Got to hear our lands He will do so There are you loving the way United States is going then look out you are not going to love your future Wow Question must have struck a nerve in me
The most honest and best people rarely get in a position of power. Itās sad but to succeed you have to play dirty at some point. You have to compromise. And the only people who can do this and not have their conscious are usually at least slightly sociopathic.
It's hard to respect kleptocratic thieves and criminals who only have their own self-interest in mind. That's what they are for the most part.
And with all due to respect to @nightdrot, there are plenty of us non-elites who could have conducted a much better monetary and regulatory policy than the current Fed leadership has, especially with the vast amount of data available to those who make monetary policy.
As I noted, I am on vacation so this response will be brief.
"Elite," does not equal "omniscient." It does not insure perfection. That said, the skills and knowledge necessary to running a nation's economic policies are not the province of the general population.
That said, based on the information available to you - and I am no fan of this Fed - and given the variables at work, including international tensions and other factors extraneous to what is generally regarded as the economy and yet that impact it, how many basis points would you raise or lower interest rates at this time?
In that connection, allow for the velocity of currency in the system and the vagaries of the post-Covid unemployment and labor participation rates.
See? Not an easy thing. Presuming kleptocracy is the a populist indulgence. It is based on a disconnect between the realities of a changing international arena, including the economy, and the public's sense that it is entitled to perfect and happy outcomes without any concomitant trade-offs to get there.
I base my respect specifically on their actions. If their actions are harmful toward the middle class and the poor, they do not have my respect. Really if their actions are harmful to anyone i dont respect them.
There are both. Your posts consistently highlight the few good ones throughout your history. Thatās admirable that you find those few pearls among the swine and brush them off and remind us that there are a few that really have āserved the peopleā. But these, my dear, are the exception. The media today only tends to highlight the negative. And this generation is typically shallow and short-sighted. Hence, your post.
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You are the only one that feels that way. I know maybe two honest politicians. Maybe some of them start out wanting to serve their community but after a while it becomes more bout the power and influence.
In the United States, politicians are thugs as are elites and criminals. This may not be true in France or wherever you have lived, but it is certainly true in the United States. There is no reason to respect these people at all and in fact most of us despise them.
im just going to let you know that every country has corruption. there's no such thing as a country without corruption. and US politicians are far less corrupt than leaders in other countries.
Haha that's very kind but no I'm very very far from being an intellectual. Believe me, intellectuals have a much deeper capacity for analysis than I do.
There are politicians out there who are decent, honest, hard working people, who entered politics for the public good. The other 99.9% give them a bad name.
