By Lukas Myers, Staff Writer
It seems like every day we hear of some new scandal in the Oval Office. Barely a week goes by without a congressman’s affair leaking to the media or a senator taking a bribe.
How many Illinois governors have been sent to prison? The answer is four out of the last seven have served prison time for political transgressions.
Clearly with all of the bureaucratic red tape and conditional freedoms, the American people
are the victims. We, as everyday regular citizens, have no control over the political system. Clearly everything wrong that happens is because there is some system far over our heads that we cannot even hope to perceive. Or, at least, that is how we treat this system.
Stop and think about that, what are the concepts in our world we can never truly understand: Infinity, nothingness, deities and politics?
Of course there are problems with our political system, there are problems inherent in any system, and nothing on our Earth is without flaw. So, of course, there will be bad people who take advantage of that system and exploit those flaws. Furthermore, one more thing is true, think back to your most embarrassing mistake you’ve ever made. The one that really haunts you. Maybe for no good reason. Maybe for a very good reason. We all have one of those memories. Those memories are indicative of our humanity and of our imperfections.
The law dictates that only a human can run for president or be appointed Supreme Court justice. So why is it then that we accept the phrases, “Nobody’s perfect” and “We all make mistakes,” when it comes to all of us, but not when it comes to people who are politicians?
Across the board, there seems to be one thing that the American people can agree on, and that is that they hate politicians. “You can’t trust ’em.” They’re some of the few people in the country who are looked upon as lowly as a lawyer or a telemarketer.
We seem to say, “Nobody’s perfect, but the congressman should be judged as though he was supposed to be.”
Or we utter, “Everyone makes mistakes, but Obama’s not allowed to.”
These statements elevate politician to above human beings, which results in them being treated as though they were below human.
They are in important posts in our country. They do tough decision-making. In reality, though, they do mostly paperwork, and a lot of it, while they sit behind their desks stressing over their job security and wanting to find a way to make everyone happy.
We forget sometimes that they are allowed to make mistakes, a government of automatons would also suffer in the polls.
The old adage is, “To err is to human.” But I like to think about it is that these politicians go home and, sometimes, they have meatloaf, which is their favorite food, and my favorite food is also meatloaf.
Lukas Myers can be reached at [email protected] or (217) 786-2311.
