A guy wrote in to the paper yesterday, suggesting that what we need is to vote against all incumbents. Not, "vote for the party that's not in power" rather, "vote against any politician who currently holds office."
That is a new level for blanket anger against politicians. There are of course, a lot of people out there who who blame politicians for all our problems. But usually they blame a party, an ideology, the systems of government, or the human race in general. I've never seen anyone focus so specifically on people in office.
Even though popular anger at leaders seems to be increasing, I was surprised by this. I disagree with politicians as much as anyone, but I think it's silly to believe that voters and our institutions are perfect, honest, and blameless, and it's just the incompetence and dishonesty of politicians that causes everything to go wrong.
That's a hard belief to maintain, especially if we're the ones electing them. Some people hang on to it by focussing on one party or the other as the source of our problems. The support this party not because of ideology, but because they're supposedly inherently more honest, and all the evil people ate just attracted to the other side.
But the anybody-but-incumbents philosophy takes it further. Somehow, the better choice is always the one that the public didn't make. One would think this belief would lead to the conclusion that the problem is we, the voters.
And yet, this extreme opinion is not that different from some views that are more mainstream. What are term limits, if not a belief that the office-holder is inherently inferior to someone who is not in office?
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