Is Politics Your Game?
There has been great moaning and groaning and gnashing of teeth over the last decades about the decline of governance. Ronald Reagan voiced this with his famous “government is the problem” line. But Reagan did not start this line of attack. He simply fed into a movement that had already concluded that government was too expensive and wasteful. That governance was not working right. It was not a respectable career path. Instead, it was a scandal to be avoided.
I was just becoming an adult back then. And I watched as my peers chose career paths. I went (eventually) into law. But here is the funny thing. Not one of my friends or colleagues chose politics. Indeed, I can think of only one who chose to go into government (and he because of his commitment to environmental policy - a niche).
This says something to me. To put it baldly, you are not likely to get good governance if good people don’t want to do governance as a career. I am not saying that the people who are in the governance business are second rate. I am saying that the pool of talent going along with them is thinner than it should be. I am also saying that too much of our public discourse relates to scandal rather than creative thinking.
Just in the US? Here is a quote from Anna Sauerbrey about Germany
Fewer and fewer of the young and talented are choosing politics as their field of work.
Why? Fear of scandal. So, is politics your game? If not, why not? Something to think about.