The Political Stage

Politicians: n. a person who is afflicted with ambition while lacking character.
     It's time for the quadrennial celebration of American politics and all that it stands for. (Disclaimer: I am aware of the cliche of the blogger who is complaining about politics and to that let me just say that this blogger has yet to fulfill that requirement so just bear with me. Or don't, because this is America, the choice is yours) Day after day, hour after hour, we are bombarded with falsities, misrepresentations, skewed data, and biased judgements. Every election cycle sees increased amounts of money going to finance campaigns and they are starting earlier every cycle. It seems that elections bring out the worst in America, cynicism, disillusionment, avarice, ignorance, anger, what have you. Candidates stand for hours speaking while never saying what they stand for. They are not making a case for their qualifications for the office they seek so much as they engage in sycophantic behavior to gain the approval of the most voters they can. This is simply the way it is in our electoral process. Every candidate is the messiah and every opponent is the anti-Christ. This is the role they are meant to play in the stories they are writing for themselves. For instance, no matter what one can not attribute success to one's opponent. One can agree publicly even in the areas in which they might agree with their opponent as this does not follow the archetype established in our minds. And I attribute this pattern to our childhoods.  
     When you're a kid all of the stories you read are simple and black and white.  They have to follow the hero/villain archetype established thousands of years ago in stories like Beowulf. There's the hero and it's clear who the hero is. And since we know who the hero is, his opponent is obviously the villain. Why else would that person be opposing the hero if not for the fact that he is evil? And indeed this thinking makes a lot of sense as it carries into our society. Ours is an adversarial and competitive one. Winners and losers are what define our heroes.  Look at sports for example. Die hard fans vehemently support their teams and one way in which they show their support is to despise and demonized the opposing team. Just as politicians and their supporters do. My team/candidate/view is righteous and good, so the opposing team/candidate/view must be wrong. Politicians and their advisers understand this and behave accordingly as they make themselves out to be the hero to their supporters and heroes need villains.      Now on some level I can understand their desire to be/stay in political office. It's a very kush gig. A six figure salary plus awesome benefits are what most working class citizens aspire to achieve. Not to mention all of the fringe benefits that come with political privilege. I should also mention that there are some people in governance who seek political office because they genuinely give a damn. And while these people are rare and their convictions and passion are tested daily, not all succumb to cynicism and temptation. There are leaders in our Congress. The difference between a leader and a politician is simple but it is also very subtle. A politician is willing to do whatever it takes to keep his job, whereas a leader is willing to do his job. The same applies to voters, the readers of the stories. An informed voter bases their decision on more than which candidate is most like them. But this thinking is appealing because if ones hero is like them than one must have heroic qualities. And it's this sort or facile cognition that poses a challenge to a healthy democracy in which ideas and problems are identified and addressed with rationality and compassion. Now I am aware that this could be very easily dismissed as nothing more than the nonsensical ramblings of some blogger. And to a certain extent one would be justified in disagreeing with me. If one were to completely dismiss my ideas purely because they do not agree with their own, than you missed the point. I am trying merely to engage your critical and analytic abilities in a political context which I hope you would then apply to the election. Be your own hero.