Have you ever wondered why politicians have such a bad name? Why you never seem to meet one that doesn’t have some stain on his record? Interestingly enough, here’s an article about Congress’s approval rating “jumping” to 31%! http://www.gallup.com/poll/114670/congress-approval-rating-jumps.aspx

Obviously, American’s don’t trust their congress all that much. Every politician gets sent with good intentions, but they always seem to lose touch with reality, and join that group of self-serving professional lawyers.

Why do they always lose their original focus? I got started thinking about this when I came across an paragraph of Zell Miller’s in his book “A Deficit of Decency,” about your first days as a politician. It reads like this:

“…In you first five minutes of arrival, while meeting your party’s leaders, you are shocked to learn that the campaign you just worked your heart out to win is not really over. Your first and most important job, you are told, is to get, of all things, reelected. And not just yourself, but all the others on “the team,” whether you are on their side of an issue or not. If they wear the team colors, you are not only expected to help them, you are obligated to help them. You are told that the main goal is to remain politically viable and keep the issues alive so you and all your party members can first and foremost assure reelection. Doing the work of the people back home is never mentioned.”

This reminded me of the typical high school clique system, where everyone wants to be part of “the group,” and will do anything to stay in it. Otherwise, they lose their “status” and are looked down on. To be honest, the quote also reminded me of bullying, where a more formidable group than you and your friends wants something from you, and you will never be left alone until you conform to their way of doing things. Once you conform, of course, you get all the stolen lunch money you could want.

Is this the way for our representatives to be behaving? Like kids in school? Somebody needs to send the principle in, because we need to have our representatives representing us, not fooling around raising money while we watch their nicely colored ads run on TV and listen to their perfectly edited shorts on the radio.

We need a real set of representatives, not career politicians. We need to replace a huge portion of our congress, and destroy the ol’ buddy system that has ruined so many good ideas before they saw the light of day, only because they weren’t good for reelection.

Without a doubt, the political system in Washington is aimed at nothing other than a good pension and benefits, as well as the power of their leaders. We need to have politicians who really care, not just say so in their ads. And when we get those politicians, we can’t lose them to the selfish attitude of congress and their bullying ways. The next time you have a ballot in your hand, elect a real leader.