The following is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of this publication.
Part IV: Politics
As promised, this month El Hyena will discuss politics. Even though El Hyena does not like politics, much less politicians, he will engage in this discussion solely as a valuable service to his dear readers. It is important for El Hyena to point out, however, since this topic can be somewhat explosive, that the opinions and conclusions expressed herein are merely the opinions and conclusions of El Hyena. Although his opinions are almost always “sage and wise”, El Hyena is never surprised that some less astute and misguided folks do not always agree with him.
This discussion is limited to the politics of the various politicians who comprise the federal government, i.e. senators, congresspeoples, and the president. This small group is appropriate for this discussion because they are all politicians who engage in politics, mostly to the exclusion of everything else. Some people may believe that these people participate in governing the country, but this is a myth. Politics is all they do, and everything they do has a political purpose that seeks a political goal.
The very first thing one needs to understand and accept is that politics has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with governance. Governing would require acting in the best interests of the citizens and the country as a whole. Many times, this would actually require politicians to put the interests of the country and/or their constituents (people whom politicians are supposed to represent) in front of their own. Politicians, however, sooner or later realize that this would be impractical.
Becoming a politician requires election to office. In other words, this requires receiving more votes than their opponent. For example, the presidential election for the year 2000 was decided by a vote of five to four. See how easy it can be ?
To persuade people to vote for them, as opposed to their opponent, would-be politicians must campaign for office. This involves giving speeches to selective groups of voters and kissing their babies, as well as having their “supporters” pay for radio and television commercials. In order to convince voters to make the desired choice, politicians and their commercials must lie and make promises that are not intended to be fulfilled, as well as make untrue statements about the opponent. Fortunately, this is easy for politicians to do, because the key to campaigning and obtaining votes is telling people what they want to hear. This technique of campaigning and winning elections is very easily accomplished because voters quite often engage in what are known as “wishful thinking” and “being deceived”.
The only truly effective and meaningful component of the political process is money. Campaigns are expensive, and gaining support (contributions of money) usually involves expensive consequences, such that are beneficial to contributors while not necessarily beneficial to constituents. (Note: a constituent is a person who thinks he is being represented by a politician). Alas, that is what politics is really all about.
People used to believe that once they voted for a politician who won the election, such politician would participate in governing the country by making and implementing laws. This is also a myth; governance is much too time consuming and distracting, as the politician’s only objective is to remain in office for as long as he or she can. Because politicians serve terms of two, four, or six years, they must stand for re-election at the expiration of their term. This results in another expensive campaign involving more lies and false promises. Since re-election campaigns always start the day after the previous election, an effective politician does not have time to waste on governance. The politician’s effort is devoted completely to “gaining support” (raising money) all of the time, as opposed to participating in government. Also, politicians need to pave the way towards life after politics, such as becoming a lobbyist, or a highly paid consultant for one of their “supporters”.
It is important for regular people (voters) to understand that the constantly campaigning politician is not especially concerned with them while in office. Rather, the effective politician is much more concerned with doing political things that benefit his or her “supporters” (campaign contributors or future employers). All politicians know that large, wealthy organizations and corporations are able to contribute the “best support” (most money or best future jobs), especially since large, wealthy organizations and corporations have recently become people. This is why politicians often “represent” those who are not actually included in their “constituency”. El Hyena realizes this is complicated and difficult for his dear readers to understand; they would have to be politicians to do so.
The other function of politics is for politicians to seek goals and objectives to make their political party look good while making the opposing political party look bad. This enhances the power of their political party while diminishing the power of the opposing political party. A political party is not particularly interested in advancing government ideology or achieving good government; rather, it is primarily interested in getting its members elected so that it may control the government, typically for the benefit of its “supporters” (see above).
To summarize, therefore: (1) our mere vote does not really count because we do not have as much money as important and worthy “supporters”; (2) politics is all about the concept of “quid pro quo”, and; (3) regular people, such as voters, do not have as much “quo”, so we get less “quid”.
This is what has become of democracy, American style.
