Quotable Quotes: About Politicians
by Miki Saxon
Because of where I live I have the dubious pleasure of being inundated by both Washington (my state) and Oregon (across the river) political ads. So I went looking for comments that might add some intelligence to the standard political garbage in which we’re all drowning.
Let’s start with some commentary from across the pond.
For the cynics among us, George Bernard Shaw offers an excellent definition of democracy, “Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.”
And a bit of levity from Jessica Mitford, “Things on the whole are much faster in America; people don’t ‘stand for election’, they ‘run for office.'”
Of course they run, since, as H. L. Mencken said, “Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.”
Politicians have been known to lie—frequently, so that’s nothing new. It probably dates back as far as politics and is part of the human condition; as Otto von Bismark said, “People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.”
While that is true, Cal Thomas’ words offer a viable explanation of why they lie, “One of the reasons people hate politics is that truth is rarely a politician’s objective. Election and power are.”
Have you ever wondered why modern politicians rarely, if ever, earn the sobriquet “statesman?” We probably need a new song, along the lines of ‘Where have all the statement gone, longtime passing…’ They aren’t endangered, they’re extinct. James Freeman Clarke explained why when he said, “A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.”
It’s a sad state of affairs, but the general population is just as responsible, because, as Bill Vaughan said, “A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won’t cross the street to vote in a national election.”
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidortez/2883940379/
