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Highlands Today

Unfortunately, We Deserve The Leaders We Elect To Public Office

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Highlands Today Staff

Published: November 25, 2007

A recent letter to the editor made an excellent point about politicians constantly raising money for their next election. The writer stated that if these politicians focused instead on representing their constituents, and being real leaders, they wouldn't need nearly as much money to be re-elected. That's the point that almost no one gets anymore. It's also what's ruining our country.

It's a lot easier to win a race by holding fundraisers and kissing the rings of special interests than it is to be a real leader. The money buys smoke and mirrors, sound bites and enough attack ads to win an election. To be a strong leader, well, that requires work, backbone, integrity and brains. It seems like few of our leaders at the state and national levels have enough – or any – of these attributes.

Try to name a few leaders over the last 50 years who let their records win the election for them. Come on, be honest. How many members of Congress or presidents can you name who truly were great – or even good – leaders? The list is painfully short.

Incumbency obviously helps a great deal, but even incumbents raise an incredible amount of money just to make sure they win. Besides, disgraced former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley can use what's left in his campaign war chest to fight any charges against being too friendly with congressional aides.

We must be realistic about this, though. Candidates running for big offices must raise money to pay for their races. But how much is necessary? And while they are raising money almost constantly, are they really doing the job we elected them to do? Are they truly representing us in our best interest? It seems like their only job is to get re-elected, which we're pretty sure isn't what voters want.

Of course, we're responsible for this behavior. That's because we fall for the negative advertising, sound bites, controlled messages and don't require our candidates to be forthright and actually do the job for us. We apparently are just fine with the polished images political consultants provide us. Forget substance and leadership, we're satisfied with pretty imagery, some 30-second sound bites about patriotism, God and whatever other lip service make so many Americans swoon. And we keep getting the same result.

In the end, we get what we deserve. Apparently we don't deserve much, considering what we're getting.

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