November 2, 2011 8:33 AM

I would never belong to a club that would have me as member...which is why I'll never run for office

[A] new survey proves that 62% of Americans “say their past would preclude them from running for public office.”

I’ve found myself pondering this from time to time. At times, it’s hard not to feel hypocritical, devoting as much time, energy, and column inches to criticizing politicians as I do while also being unwilling to step into the fray myself. Well, that’s if I ignore the one very real reason why I’ve never had any desire to run for public office. Above and beyond anything else, I have no desire for my life to become an open book and fodder for anyone to fold, spindle, and mutilate as they see fit. Like any other human who’s lived anything even faintly resembling a life, I’ve led an imperfect existence…and I have no desire for those imperfections to become grist for the mill used to destroy those looking to serve, whatever the reason may be.

So 62% of Americans are self-aware (and morally unfit) enough to recognize that their past could (and probably would) be twisted into something virtually unrecognizable by the press and/or political enemies yet to be divined. Why would any sane, reasonable person subject themselves to that? I’m far too protecting of myself and my family to put myself in a position where I might no longer have control over what people know about me (and what they do with that knowledge). Let’s face it; politics in America is an exercise not in “if”, but “when” and “how” someone will attempt to destroy you. That being the case, I’ve long since ceded the field to those with fewer boundaries, no filter, and a greater desire for power. I may yet achieve total world domination, but if it happens it will be done as quietly and anonymously as humanly possible. Of course, wanting a career as a writer may well (and hopefully will) rob me of that anonymity, but I think I’d trade that for the opportunity to make a living doing what I’ve dreamed of.

The state of politics in America today is such that good and decent people- people who could make a difference- look at what public office entails and rightly recoil in revulsion. I suppose this explains why so many of our public officials are morally bankrupt and ethically challenged power-hungry zealots consumed by ambition and a lust for power. Not that there aren’t good and decent people who swallow hard and step into the Sturm und Drang knowing full well the risks they’re assuming, but those folks are increasingly the exception and not the rule.

It’s been said (often by me) that we get exactly the quality of leadership we deserve. The truly sad thing is that our standards are so abysmally low.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on November 2, 2011 8:33 AM.

Being indignant is not a crime...today, it's a duty was the previous entry in this blog.

The movement is spreading is the next entry in this blog.

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