Just my un-educated, uninformed opinion, but:
(1) Most politicians have never had a real job. They have either been in politics or in the legal world for their entire working lives, and have no idea what it's like to have to work for a living - to have to contribute effort to an enterprise that must produce a valuable product or service...or die trying. They have never been laid off, demoted, passed over for a promotion, you name it. No Real Jobs.
Thus, they have these crazy ideas that wealth and poverty are nothing more than serendipitous factors that influence peoples' lives. The basic fact of life that people who are more talented and work harder are generally the ones who succeed (and vice versa), is lost on politicians, since they haven't seen it in action. When they see a "poor" person, they see a "victim," even if that poor person is the laziest, most good-for-nothing bastard that ever drew a breath. When they see someone with wealth or a high income they refer to them as "fortunate." Think about that. Fortunate means "lucky." Most of the people I know with high incomes are not fortunate at all. They just worked hard, took chances, made the best of their opportunities, and so forth. Calling them "fortunate" is an insult, but the word is used so frequently that it has become expected and no one objects.
(2) Politicians, because of the nature of their positions, spend OTHER PEOPLES' MONEY for OTHER PEOPLES' BENEFIT. This is the worst possible spending scenario. They don't care about the cost and they don't care about the quality of what is acquired with the OPM. And we, the taxpayers, pay the price of this foolishness and waste.
(3) Most of the interaction that politicians have with The People are with people who look to Government to solve their problems. This is NOT a cross section of the American Public; it's a fraction of the public that lacks the courage, integrity, and maturity to take care of themselves.
Because of this, and because they are drunk with their own power, they lose sight of the distinction between what people should be taking care of themselves, and what Government rightly takes care of. If your road needs re-paving and it's ruining the suspension of your car, that's a Government problem. If your kid needs a special learning environment with no peanuts within a hundred feet of him, that's YOUR PROBLEM, because it's YOUR KID. And we pay the price for the Politician missing this distinction. There are thousands of government (i.e., taxpayer-provided) programs to address - badly, if I may be frank - what are basically PERSONAL problems. You have three illegitimate kids, no job, and no education? Tough shit. Change your life.
(4) Because of (1) above, a Politician's main reason for existence is the perpetuation of his political career (until he has enough time in to become a "consultant" or "lobbyist"). Thus, politicians are totally unwilling to tackle unpleasant realities, or basically anything that a significant portion of the population will find unpleasant (e.g., Social Security reform).
And at the intersection of politics and human nature, there are many "political" issues about which 95% of the population is indifferent, but 5% will react violently - say, legalizing marijuana - so politicians will sidestep the issue FOREVER because there is no political upside. No one will vote FOR him if he supports legalizing MJ, but 5% will vote against him...so nothing gets done.
Term Limits are "un-American" in a sense, because if the People want someone and that person wants to "serve" it isn't "right" to keep that from happening. But honest to God, having 20, 30, and even 40 year careers in Congress (or the state legislatures) is a crime against the taxpayers, and it ought to be stopped.
(1) Most politicians have never had a real job. They have either been in politics or in the legal world for their entire working lives, and have no idea what it's like to have to work for a living - to have to contribute effort to an enterprise that must produce a valuable product or service...or die trying. They have never been laid off, demoted, passed over for a promotion, you name it. No Real Jobs.
Thus, they have these crazy ideas that wealth and poverty are nothing more than serendipitous factors that influence peoples' lives. The basic fact of life that people who are more talented and work harder are generally the ones who succeed (and vice versa), is lost on politicians, since they haven't seen it in action. When they see a "poor" person, they see a "victim," even if that poor person is the laziest, most good-for-nothing bastard that ever drew a breath. When they see someone with wealth or a high income they refer to them as "fortunate." Think about that. Fortunate means "lucky." Most of the people I know with high incomes are not fortunate at all. They just worked hard, took chances, made the best of their opportunities, and so forth. Calling them "fortunate" is an insult, but the word is used so frequently that it has become expected and no one objects.
(2) Politicians, because of the nature of their positions, spend OTHER PEOPLES' MONEY for OTHER PEOPLES' BENEFIT. This is the worst possible spending scenario. They don't care about the cost and they don't care about the quality of what is acquired with the OPM. And we, the taxpayers, pay the price of this foolishness and waste.
(3) Most of the interaction that politicians have with The People are with people who look to Government to solve their problems. This is NOT a cross section of the American Public; it's a fraction of the public that lacks the courage, integrity, and maturity to take care of themselves.
Because of this, and because they are drunk with their own power, they lose sight of the distinction between what people should be taking care of themselves, and what Government rightly takes care of. If your road needs re-paving and it's ruining the suspension of your car, that's a Government problem. If your kid needs a special learning environment with no peanuts within a hundred feet of him, that's YOUR PROBLEM, because it's YOUR KID. And we pay the price for the Politician missing this distinction. There are thousands of government (i.e., taxpayer-provided) programs to address - badly, if I may be frank - what are basically PERSONAL problems. You have three illegitimate kids, no job, and no education? Tough shit. Change your life.
(4) Because of (1) above, a Politician's main reason for existence is the perpetuation of his political career (until he has enough time in to become a "consultant" or "lobbyist"). Thus, politicians are totally unwilling to tackle unpleasant realities, or basically anything that a significant portion of the population will find unpleasant (e.g., Social Security reform).
And at the intersection of politics and human nature, there are many "political" issues about which 95% of the population is indifferent, but 5% will react violently - say, legalizing marijuana - so politicians will sidestep the issue FOREVER because there is no political upside. No one will vote FOR him if he supports legalizing MJ, but 5% will vote against him...so nothing gets done.
Term Limits are "un-American" in a sense, because if the People want someone and that person wants to "serve" it isn't "right" to keep that from happening. But honest to God, having 20, 30, and even 40 year careers in Congress (or the state legislatures) is a crime against the taxpayers, and it ought to be stopped.
