Originally Posted by
mogaru
"I'm sorry, but I must challenge the fact that we have "career politicians" at this point in our state government".
I just going to give one example : President Joe Biden close to 50 years in politics and like him there are plenty of them. With state flavor Pelosi, Feinstein, Newsom and many others.
I've worked in politics my whole career, and like any other profession there are people who are good at it and people who suck at it. What makes it more challenging than most endeavors is that while it is complex and challenging, people who don't understand it like to dumb it down and think that their big "idea" and big mouth are sufficient qualifications to be elected to something.
Like anything else that's worthwhile it requires work, study, experience, and dedication. Go get elected and take your big idea to the state legislature and you will find that there are 100 others who have ideas and agendas, just as big as yours, but the people who are successful, who get things done, are the ones who have learned the craft and understand the issues intimately, who can build alliances, and trust among their colleagues.
People who charge in screaming the system stinks, promising to screw everyone and kick the table over rarely if ever succeed.
Politics is a career and a profession and people who dedicate themselves to it be they left or right, red or blue, R or D, and get good at it deserve to be reelected. For example, it takes decades to understand the US tax code and if we put 4 year term limits on Congress, the only people in the building who would understand how it works are the lobbyists. Same for the school funding mechanism in California, Prop 98. Do you want lobbyists running our country?
Our State legislature functioned much better before term limits were introduced. Today legislators are happy to pass laws or taxes knowing that when they take effect, they will be out of office and it will be someone else's problem. We live in an era of shortsighted, instant gratification, politics and its not healthy.
For those deriding the likes of Joe Biden or others who have spent 50 years in public service, you should know they would make 10X on the outside lobbying for special interests. They choose not to do so because they have ideals that they value more than money.
There's an old lobbyist joke. A retired Marine Corps General signs up as a lobbyist for a firm that represents defense contractors. First week on the job and Boeing calls him and says they need to talk to the Secretary of Defense because the contract for the new Navy fighter is coming up for bid. the General says "sure, that will cost you $100,000." "WHAT???" "$100,000 for a five minute phone call????" says the Boeing CEO. "You're not paying for the 5 minutes, you're paying for the 30 years I spent in the Corps that ensures that the Secretary will answer the call." This is how DC works and the people who stay on the inside rather than cash in on the outside should be commended not derided.
2 cents.
You can't buy happiness, but you can buy new fly fishing gear and that usually does the trick.
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