Sometimes I wonder if there are actually any good politicians, at least here in the U.S since that’s where I am. I just wonder.. I don’t know. I mean, think about it. You could be an ordinary working class person making $50k a year. Maybe you have several hundred followers on twitter and instagram. You take one good vacation a year. You’re just another person walking on the streets or the train.
One day, you decide to run for office. You want to change things etc. You have a working class platform. When you start your campaign, you’re still the same person. Say one year down the road, you win. You’ve been elected. You’re the new hot shot progressive star. You’re famous now, you’re a celebrity with hundreds of thousands of twitter and Instagram followers. Everyone is praising you all the time, wanting your autograph or taking a picture with you. You get to be on TV every day, you’re in the news. Journalists want to interview you.
You go to D.C and get sworn in. Now you’re making $200k a year. Whereas before you were a working class person who had a boss and what not, now you’re the boss of 10-15 congressional staff members. Instead of you working for someone else, now others are working for you. The power dynamics change. All of the people you work with on a daily basis, instead of being fellow working class people, now you’re working with others making $200k a year and many of them being quite considerably rich. Not only that, but you’re no longer just another person in the world. You have access to all sorts of money and power.
Before, you were a working class person who could only afford to take maybe one good vacation a year. Now you get to travel every weekend for three day weekends as part of your job. You can even fly in business class now.
Before, if you attended a protest or march, you would just be another person in the crowd, but now you’re one of the speakers. You get to hang out with celebrity artists and athletes and so forth, instead of watching them on tv from your former one/two bedroom apartment. You get to live in two places now instead of one.
I could go on but yea. You could be the best person in the world with the most working class background and what not, but running for office and being elected, it changes you. Once you’re in power, you’re no longer working class. However good a person may be, being in power will bring out your ego. It will corrupt even the best of persons, turn them into sociopaths and narcissists, however much they try to mask it with cute dog pictures or dancing videos or passionate speeches.
adamkendall2 