According to Will Rogers this is the before-election promise season. After the election it will be the alibi season, where the winners explain why they can’t keep their promises. (Hint, it’s the other guys’ fault.)
Peggy Noonan, who was a speech writer and Special Assistant to President Reagan, says politicians are bound to disappoint. They can’t help it. It’s just the way they are.
Even with my cynical view of politics, I was still surprised by Stanley Bing’s column in this month’s Fortune Magazine. Stanley Bing is his pen name. He’s also a business executive and mostly his end-page columns are humorous. Not this month. It’s entitled “Recovery Blues” and after Bing bemoans the current state of the economy he writes
And then there’s the entire political situation, whatever that is. The way I look at it, there are two possibilities. The Republicans could take over in November, leading to tax legislation that would favor those who have money over those who don’t and a host of regressive measures that would be good for business. Or the President could triumph, leading to four more years of an obstructionist Congress that would block any attempts at sensible regulation and economic reform, which will be good for business.
So why do I feel as if I may have left the stove on and I’m miles from home?
Whether or not Bing is correct, I was surprised to read that in pro-business Fortune. What do you think? Do you think Bing is unduly pessimistic?
I think this is the consequence of the professionalisation of politics and its corruption through money.
India is no different. Politicians of all hues are already posturing towards the elections due in two years time. Politicians of whatever hue are neither pessimistic nor optimistic. They are simply opportunistic. Once they are elected they serve their masters. It is now with increased information available to the general public that we are becoming aware of this phenomenon and I agree with Evan that politics as a profession has generated this pattern of behaviour. I do not know much of Bing, but I suspect that he is just being realistic.
Evan,
Yes, at best politicians have to spend a lot of their time raising money if they want to stay in office. And with that much power a lot of them can’t resist feathering their own nests while they have a chance.
In 2008 Peggy Noonan talked about the Republicans who came in to reform the government:
That’s not saying only the Republicans do it, of course. It’s just that this particular group came in as reformers. And Obama came in with the idea of curbing the powers of the President and changed his mind once he got into office.
Rummuser,
Bad government is nothing new. Plato and other Greek philosophers pondered the subject. Plato’s The Republic was about his idea of creating good rulers. His ideas are still famous after all these years, even though he didn’t succeed in creating any well-run state. Confucious also tried and died thinking himself a failure.