Expecting better from our leaders...

E.J. Dionne writes about all the ways that politicians will try to get your votes these next elections other than by having better ideas...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401416.html

Why do people makes themselves such easy targets for this bullshit?

Why would we spend all of our time trying to avoid thinking about the kind of world we want and have politicians be accountable to those better ideas than we would allow ourselves election after election to be propagandized and pandered to by manipulative lameasses?

Why would we so settle for such bad policy, such stupid and foolish consequences, such blatant bullshit in our elections processes...

Rather than just expect better?

Do we have no self-respect at all?

Surely we do...

You know what I expect out of this election?

Politicians who have better ideas to solve problems...I don't want slogans...I don't want the same old line of bullshit that didn't solve the problem the last time...I don't want stupid catch phrases meant to get me heated rather than to shed light on situations...

I want thought...I want serious thought...and I want political leaders who will challenge and inspire me and everyone else to think bigger, rather than pander to our smaller instincts...I want political leaders who hold high ideals, rather than those who will reinforce our baser impulses...I want politicians who seem like they genuinely care about people, rather than weasels who keep making excuses for what such fuckin' pricks they are...I want politicians who will take responsibility, the best they can (and, as importantly, the best that we will let them) rather than always looking to exploit peoples' anguish over problems to unseat their opponents...

I want leaders who inspire me to be a better person...not a perfect person...perfect people don't exist...

I want leaders who inspire me to be better...

Because they care more, themselves, about being better people than they do about getting elected...

That's a tall order, I'm aware...

But I don't give a shit...

Either step up, I say, or step down...

This year...I want political leaders, journalists, policy thinkers, advisors, consultants, diplomats, bureaucrats and other civic leaders who step up their humanity and their leadership...

And if they can't, they need to step down until they can...

I don't expect people to be perfect...but I do expect people to be better...and to know the difference, in their hearts, between leadership and trying to bend a populace to their will...

If you think leadership is forcing people to do your bidding...

You need another line of work...

And if you can't learn to let go of that bad idea...

You need to find another job than elected office...

And my goal this election is to elect as many people who respect freedom more this election...who will respect freedom more than this election...or any election...and to have those who don't respect freedom to sit out an elected seat until they can...

The only antidote to the propaganda that E.J. is profiling in this article is to expect leaders to think more and more seriously...

And they will either do so for my vote...or they will be held to the highest intellectual standards, by my lights, until they do so...

An election where politicians compete to demonstrate how thoughtful they are...now that would be a democracy to be proud of...

This election, my goal is to persuade citizens, average people, to expect better of their politicians...to expect them to think...to have one new idea...just one...at least...to demonstrate how much better they understand how to navigate the world rather than to pretend like somehow any dumbfuck can do the job...

I don't want politicians who appeal to our vanity, any more...

I want citizens who have the courage and honesty to face themselves and say, "I expect politicians who understand the world better than me and expect me to do the same"...

Because that is the only place where we will find real solutions to our problems and not more of the same bullshit...

By expecting better...

Of our leaders...

And more importantly...

Of ourselves...

Love,
Ben