Yesterday I wrote a diary titled I don't believe in Faeries that discusses the danger of indulging in fantasies about presidential candidates and the harm it does to the political discussion (as a myriad of candidate fluff diaries have demonstrated recently).
In the course of discussing various points with respondants came the idea that we should trust our candidates to make good on their promises. I wanted to expand on this a bit because what do we really know about these people? And is it really neccessary or even desirable to have faith in our political leaders?
Before we begin I am not advocating for cynicism or pessimism so much as a measured skepticism and a change in roles. We have all been down this road before.
In '06 we were all promised a new direction if we won back congress for the dems. We were told, repeatedly, that dems would stand up to Bush and he wouldn't get any more blank checks or free rides. We were told that there would be investigations and with the power of subpoena, they would get to the bottom of Bush's malfesance and restore sanity to government.
We were promised all of this, and those promises were broken, through inaction, to the last.
Now there's a new election, and there are new promises, as there are every 2 years. And I am left wondering why it is important to TRUST our political leaders? Why should we have faith in them? I have never met a single one of them, and I will never know anything about them beyond what I am told by others (who obviously have their own agendas). They are all friendly strangers. I may trust that they won't do me any harm, but can I trust them to their word? Can I trust them to KEEP the promises they make?
I don't think I have that kind of trust anymore. And more importantly, I don't think it's neccessary or even desirable. They are not our friends. They are not our comrades. They are not "in it" with us. They are, by definition, public servants. They are elected by us to serve OUR interests.
Perhaps we should be choosing our public servants less on what they say they will do for us, and more for the inclination they have to LISTEN to us. Because right now that is, I think, the biggest problem. Not enough of our dems are listening to us. Many show more inclination to kow to republican pressure than public pressure and that has to change.
They ask us to trust them, I say to heck with that. We should be asking them to trust us. We should be demanding they listen to us. We are not vesting in them power to pursue their own private agendas, but to further our collective agendas.
I don't know exactly how we should go about this, but we can start by not fawning all over them in adoration.
It's a start. We do, after all, have the power. We should be more careful in who we vest it to.