Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession.

‘Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.’
Ronald Reagan

(In case you are a little slow like me (I had to look it up) the oldest profession is prostitution.)

I overheard some people discussing their elected representatives in the US Senate and House of Representatives.  Their impression was that these elected offices should vote purely based on the desires of their constituents.  They had an idea to create an online poll, where constituents of their district could log in and vote on the issues.  Technical (and hacking) issues aside, could you imagine if we left major political decisions up to the average American?  More on that in a second.

I had to laugh when I heard one of the guy’s mention, “That’s how a true democracy should run.”  Just as the desire to jump into this conversation was welling, I heard the other guy mention that we aren’t a democracy, we are a republic.  Even though he knew that little fact, from the conversation, I could tell that neither of them really understood what that meant.  I’d like to add that I don’t know these guys personally, but I do know that they are likely college educated, as they hold jobs as computer programmers.

The funny thing is, in a way, he was right.  In a true democracy, every American would vote on every issue.  How would that really work out though?  A majority of people don’t know what they want.  They don’t know all the ins and outs of politics.  They don’t look at or weigh the needs of the many.  And, conversely, they don’t look at the rights of an individual if that individual is in the way of their own wants or needs.  In general, human beings are a greedy self serving lot.   The average American is barely able to make an educated guess when voting for a new President.  I know, because I can barely make this same educated guess, especially in our current political environment of smear campaigns and negative politics.  It’s so difficult to make out the difference between fact and fiction during a campaign, could you imagine if we actually voted on every single item?  It would be a constant world of confusion on every issue, trying to dig the facts out of the fountain of media hoopla.

How can you tell if a politician is lying? Check to see if the lips are moving

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have anywhere near enough time to sort through issues on every topic.  I can only imagine how much time it actually takes for our elected officials to run this country.  That’s why I make my best educated guess when voting, and hope my elected official will make wise decisions on my behalf.

The main thing that concerns me is the clichéd idea of choosing the lesser of two evils.  In the last couple of Presidential elections, I wasn’t very happy with either candidate.  Neither seemed to match my views or outlooks.  Here is another problem with our current system.  There may well have been other viable candidates, but I don’t vote for them because it could negatively affect the outcome of my lesser of two evils candidate.  Voting for a third party candidate is akin to throwing that vote in the garbage.

The more I think about it, the more I think it’s not our government that is broken.  The government, in its pure form based on the Constitution, works well.  The problem is this two party system.  Especially in the current day, where it is so prohibitively expensive to enter the political ring on your own without the backing of a party.  It would be quite refreshing for an elected official to make decisions based on his own sense of morality, rather than the bent of party politics.  I seriously can’t stand listening to anything political anymore, as it always mentions something about party affiliation.

I’m not sure how or why the party system started, but it probably had to do with our human need to classify and categorize everything.  This basic premise has grown to where many people now vote based on party affiliation alone, with the assumption that a candidate in a party will follow the ideas and precepts of that party.  The party now defines the candidate rather than the candidates defining the party.

Looks like my single political post is turning into a small series.  I didn’t plan it that way, but my thoughts and interests tend to flitter about like a hummingbird from flower to flower.  I hope you are enjoying these couple of posts.  I’m really not into politics much and don’t tend to follow them day to day, but I do like to understand the basics of how things work.  And if any of you aren’t into these political posts, I’m sure to flitter on to something else very soon, probably by the next post in fact.

Photo by johnnyalive.

Tagged as: Philosophy, Politics