In Politics, We Don't Trust

Some thoughts on a particularly divisive profession.

 The General Elections in my home country; Kenya, concluded in September. There has been much dissent over the candidates that were elected, which isn't unprecedented. After all, the nature of democracy entails that some individuals will experience disappointment (although it would be an overstatement to say our elections were carried out with the highest levels of democratic standards, but I digress...). However, while reflecting on the whole campaign process and observing the jubilant attitudes of people whose chosen candidate managed to clinch a government position, and the disappointment of those whose preferred candidate lost; I realized that our views on politicians might sometimes be a little...extreme.

 Let's establish some context. A common viewpoint of citizens across the world is that politicians are dishonest. They spent exorbitant amounts on money on rigorous campaigns, making all sorts of promises to their would-be voters. Then once they get into office, they appear to suffer a bout of amnesia and completely forget about the oaths they made until the next election.

 Now, I won't dwell too much on the ethics of global politics, that's enough material for more than one blog post. But, I'd like to focus on the outlook of the citizens in the above scenario. Often, you will find that some of said people eat up every single word that politicians utter during their campaigns, no matter how far-fletched their pledges may be. They see their preferred candidate as a messiah who will solve all their problems immediately, thus alleviating them from all their worries. The fact that the global economy is currently going down the tubes serves to amplify these feelings. People are struggling and need something or someone to place their hopes in.

 Alternatively, people can be utterly determined to despise a candidate, for justifiable or unjustifiable reasons. But even if someone is a good-hearted politician (which may sound like an oxymoron to some), there's only capable of doing so much. I feel like politicians get criticized no matter what they do, which ties back to the nature of democracy not pleasing everyone, only the (in-most-cases) majority. People expect politicians to perform miracles the moment they step into office, or else they must be a bunch of obtuse baboons. We mustn't forget that these people are human too.

 Although that isn't to say that politicians shouldn't be held accountable for their decisions either.  It's not like people's outlook on politics is unfounded. Plenty of candidates are willing to lie, cheat and even kill for power. And once they get into office, the shenanigans continue. From avoiding traffic by driving on the wrong side of the road, to buying a Porsche Cayenne using hunger relief funds; the reason that people have such a negative view of politics overall is due to the below rock-bottom standards that some elected officials have set, with vows of service followed by lies, corruption and general scum-baggary.  And that's not even getting to the worst things that some of them have done with their power...

 But that's the point: it's some of them, not all of them. You know the saying, 'love the sinner, hate the sin?' Well, this is the inverse of that. Hate the...y'know what, I think that's a bit too heavy of a word for what I'm going for. Let's go with 'have a strong sense of distaste towards the politician, but don't have said sense of distaste towards the political system as a whole.'

Rolls right of the tongue, doesn't it?

 If we want politicians to change they way they act, we should have more faith in the political system. That might sound pointless in the era that we're living in, but I don't think we can expect something to work if we don't believe that it can. We need to make it clear to our leaders that we don't just expect them to do better; we trust that they will.

 To politicians: current and aspiring, you have big roles to play; but just do your best, listen to the people, and make decisive, truthful judgements.

Also, don't steal money. That too.