Trusting Politicians

A few years ago, I was checking out of the grocery line, when someone in line behind me recognized me from the city council. She muttered, ‘I don’t trust politicians.” I looked at her and smiled, and told her I didn’t feel like a politician. Is the definition of a pol someone who gets elected to a public office? If so, that puts negative shine on a lot of good people.

I think a politician is a person who tailors his public statements to what he thinks voters want to hear; then he votes on ordinances and legislative proposals in a way that will keep him safe in two opposing voter camps. I never figured out how to do that, so I guess I wasn’t a politician.

I also spoke out on the issues; wrote about them. Shared them in public spaces. If I had questions about a proposal or struggled to discern which decision would be best for the community, I shared that indecision as well.

Lumping everyone into a manipulative behavior merely because they have been elected to office, isn’t fair to the voter or the elected, in my opinion.

That was back in the early 2000’s; today in 2018, the mood is considerably different, most of all mine.

Guiliani is a politician with long credentials. He manipulated as Mayor of New York City, and afterward when he was a willing critic of any one or position.  He passed himself off as an expert without having the credentials. Oh sure, he had experience; and he had exposure to many issues, votes and whatnot, but when he was deeply questioned on issues, he lost his way and showed that he had another agenda he was supporting. That agenda was not always in the public’s interest.

Now, a private attorney, he springs up to help mr. trump. And he says anything he thinks will satisfy his boss, and be manipulative of public opinion centering on mr. trump. His latest bomb is an empty accusation that Obama knew there were FBI spies in the trump campaign. Nonsense. But he says it anyway because he doesn’t have to prove it. He just says it for whatever traction it gets.

Anything to purchase time and space for trump to weasel out of the narrowing path he has chosen to manipulate his power in the presidency.

By now it is very clear that trump and his non-professional colleagues are totally unaware of what they don’t know about government and how it works. They manage their affairs like public relations and marketing people trying to sell ice to an Eskimo. They are good at that role; but it is evident in government that they don’t know what they are doing. This is especially true in a free society with a free press.

That is why trump tries to discredit the press continually. It’s the distraction tactic. By now, however, most of us are on to him. He is sleazy. He hires sleaze to help him.

That’s truly sad. Sad for all of us. Even those who voted for him will lose. They don’t know that yet because they are too busy pretending they didn’t make a mistake in voting for him. Sad for us because of the time, effort and cost it will require to fix everything he has broken.

Especially broken and in need of repair, the word and reputation of America. What an awful waste of  time his presidency has caused. The only good thing about it is the instructive footnote to history books in the future on how the American political system is subject to idiocy when voters don’t study the facts before casting their vote.

Hopefully voters will partially correct this travesty in fall 2018 mid-term elections. With democrat control of the house and senate, the president may be cordoned off from doing further damage.

We can hope. And then impeach the guy. And prepare for a better slate of candidates who are dedicated to the long-term success of America and the global community.

May 29, 2018