The Psychology of those who run for national political office

[dturner1157]

Somewhere along time the nature of politicians changed from being a "public servant" into a life-long career. That needs to change. From the moment of entering office (under the new guidelines) one is almost required to lie in order to preserve one's "career". This is why we need term limits. It will get politicians mind set right, or get them out.

Those who oppose term limits say that elections are term limits, which is completely ignoring the fact that the longer a politician is in office, the more their power base is entrenched. Term limits and publicly-funded elections would immediately change the behaviors of these people.

Unfortunately, it still wouldn't address the declining quality of people who are crazy enough to run in the first place.
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I see your point. And I agree that would be the case for the short term.
But, I also would hope that in the long run a lot of the ugliness we see now would diminish as a result. Hence, more people of quality would be more likely to approach the political arena.

 

[Timmy]

Somewhere along time the nature of politicians changed from being a "public servant" into a life-long career. That needs to change.
From the moment of entering office (under the new guidelines) one is almost required to lie in order to preserve one's "career".

This is why we need term limits. It will get politicians mind set right, or get them out.

Would term limits really help? Then you'd have a revolving door of inexperience.

 

[dturner1157]

Somewhere along time the nature of politicians changed from being a "public servant" into a life-long career. That needs to change.
From the moment of entering office (under the new guidelines) one is almost required to lie in order to preserve one's "career".

This is why we need term limits. It will get politicians mind set right, or get them out.

Would term limits really help? Then you'd have a revolving door of inexperience.

Is "experience" (i.e. political corruption) something that we really need?
Wouldn't it be worth a try?

 

[Timmy]

Somewhere along time the nature of politicians changed from being a "public servant" into a life-long career. That needs to change.
From the moment of entering office (under the new guidelines) one is almost required to lie in order to preserve one's "career".

This is why we need term limits. It will get politicians mind set right, or get them out.

Would term limits really help? Then you'd have a revolving door of inexperience.

Is "experience" (i.e. political corruption) something that we really need?
Wouldn't it be worth a try?

The probleM is all the dirty money .

If you have limited terms, who will take the job? Rich people or those bankrolled by the rich .

 

[dturner1157]

Somewhere along time the nature of politicians changed from being a "public servant" into a life-long career. That needs to change.
From the moment of entering office (under the new guidelines) one is almost required to lie in order to preserve one's "career".

This is why we need term limits. It will get politicians mind set right, or get them out.

Would term limits really help? Then you'd have a revolving door of inexperience.

Is "experience" (i.e. political corruption) something that we really need?
Wouldn't it be worth a try?

The probleM is all the dirty money .

If you have limited terms, who will take the job? Rich people or those bankrolled by the rich .

We also need to look into reforming the campaign finance laws, which are fraught with loopholes.
Who will take the job? Hopefully citizens who want to represent their constituents.

 

[Darkwind]

I was watching someone talking about something somewhere about something some time ago, and they were discussing how national politics are now so nasty, so intrusive, and so distorted by social media now that our REAL Best & Brightest know to stay the hell away from it. Completely.

Anyone who runs for the House, Senate or White House now knows that they and their family will be the subject of an absolute non-stop, 24 hour a day, FLOOD of attacks, lies, distortions and fake news that, not only can badly affect their family and personal life, but making it pretty much impossible to get out a real message or actually improve anything.

So what are your thoughts on any or all of the following?

1. Do you think it's true that many people who would otherwise be helpful are just choosing to stay away?
2. What do you think is the psychological makeup of someone who's willing to put themselves and their family through this?
3. If many of our real Best & Brightest are now avoiding politics, is that leading to a decay in the quality of our political "leaders" and governance?
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1. No. I think that many people are so busy with their own interests that they expect to just pass the responsibility of fixing problems to some politician and then want to go back to their lives. I think of it like charity. People who are taxed think that that money is going to do some good so they don't have to actually make the effort of being charitable. Its the "I gave at the office" on steroids. In effect, they are just disinterested.

2. I think they are greedy. They see that a person making less than 200k a year becoming multi-million dollar rich in the span of a decade. The whole time crying poverty that they have to maintain two residents. (often million dollar+ homes and grounds) To these kinds of people, the hassle is worth is, particularly when you can isolate yourself from the 'unwashed'.

3. This presupposes that the Best & Brightest were ever in charge or in politics. I have fundamental disagreements with that entire notion.

In truth, we have to start educating people to the reality that government isn't needed to fix every problem or to make you happy. Stop thinking that if I get elected I can make life better for people and start thinking that if I get elected, I can keep the trains running on time or perhaps improve the efficiency of those trains.

 

[Mac1958]

Somewhere along time the nature of politicians changed from being a "public servant" into a life-long career. That needs to change.
From the moment of entering office (under the new guidelines) one is almost required to lie in order to preserve one's "career".

This is why we need term limits. It will get politicians mind set right, or get them out.

Would term limits really help? Then you'd have a revolving door of inexperience.

Is "experience" (i.e. political corruption) something that we really need?
Wouldn't it be worth a try?

The probleM is all the dirty money .

If you have limited terms, who will take the job? Rich people or those bankrolled by the rich .

We also need to look into reforming the campaign finance laws, which are fraught with loopholes.

As with any other major issue, there are perfectly reasonable arguments in either direction here. The question is whether the ultimate outcome is a net improvement.

If we can come up with alterations to existing conditions that make these people change their behaviors, great. I just haven't seen anything that would most likely change those behaviors more than term limits and publicly-funded elections would.
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