When I was a kid in grammar school, I would occasionally hear the sound of other students taking notes. They sounded as if they were writing very quickly -- much more quickly than I could write. I thought that perhaps if I could emulate that sound, I would take notes more quickly, too. And so I would occasionally take notes that were nothing more than dots, dashes, and squiggles, all done quickly. I did get the sound done. The content, not so much.
There are times, watching our political process, that I think our politicians work the same way. They know what they're supposed to do; they just can't figure out out to do it. So they make the sounds, and hope that's enough.
This is a good analogy. Politicians spend more of their time trying to get it right than just doing what is right.
ReplyDeleteI would love to talk with a working politician about this, but I'm afraid that my end would degenerate quickly into allegations of fealty to lobbyists/big donators and asking how they can defend adding clearly irrelevant amendments to bills.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that being an honest politician is difficult. I suspect that they find it virtually impossible, many times, to decide what is "right".
Doesn't mean I trust any of them, though.
Fabulous analogy!
ReplyDelete(I don't trust them either...)
I heard years ago that people don't trust doctors in general, but they do trust the doctor they know. Perhaps if people knew politicians better - some of them, anyway --they'd feel differently. I know that I have a good image of Claire McCaskill because of the comments she puts on Twitter.
ReplyDeleteMight be expecting too much, I guess.