Why do you Serve? No, really...

This article got me thinking about why people get into public service in the first place, why they chose to remain there, and how they go about staying if they do decide to try and stick around.

My optimistic and 'willing to try to see the good side of peoples' intentions' streak is readily willing to accept the premise that most individuals entering the world of public service and the politics that go along with it do so with the best and most noble intentions. However, it seems that the fetid and twisted world of politics; be it local, state, or national; can quickly suck even the most purely intentioned individual into the mire of back scratching and deal-making that is modern day politicing in our supposedly utopian democratic system of government. The most recent example of this arm twisting that is commonplace in the daily workings of legislation in our Congress is the persuasive tactics (some which we probably would be more comfortable not knowing the details of) employed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to secure the passage of the new Iraq funding bill which places a timetable on the deployment of US troops in Iraq as well as authorizing the funding to keep them in place and ensuring that returning troops in the period before the deadline expires are properly trained and equipped. The bill barely passed with the gratefully accepted (but by no means easily obtained) votes from key "Blue Dog" Democrats and these two brave rank breaking Republicans. The merits (or lack thereof) of this bill have been chronicled in almost infinite depth already, so I will spare you digression in that direction (pause for sighs of relief).

My main quandry here is the motivation of individuals for staying in office and the methods they employ to achieve that goal. Most seem to think that adhering to the mainstream party line where major issues are concerned is the safest bet, based on the soul-less data provided by regional and national polls. While it seems to work in terms of getting re-elected, what about serving one's constituents, i.e. the people who are ostensibly paying your salary and therefore the ones whom you work for and answer to? Don't they have a say in whether you as a public servant are retained in your position? How hard is it to take the time to meet with them on a semi regular basis to find out how they feel about the war that their sons and daughters are being asked to fight in a conflict with no foreseeable end and no clear objective? Or possibly what they might want you to try to accomplish for the district that you represent on a local level? Do these elected officials rally think that once placed in office the mandate given to them by the electorate is forfeit and subject to their personal whims? Again I realize that my naivite (and whiskey enhanced sense of outrage) may be distorting my expectations and realistic handle on the concept, but my understanding of the government as outlined in the Constitution is that it is one that is By the People, Of the People, and For the People.

Has something changed?

If so, can we change it back?

If the results from last November and the recently manifesting actions of those results are any indication, then the answer is an unqualified, albeit slow to appear, yes.

We're not a nation of drones waiting to be told what to think, contrary to the beliefs of the extreme right wing media monolithic totem pole (featuring the mugs of Rush, the Coultergeist, the Jane wanna-be and Mr. leading-the-wrong-witness). When we're given the facts, we are perfectly capable of drawing our own conclusions and forming our own opinions. The key to keeping people on the straight and narrow is to limit the flow of information to them, which the mainstream right wing media has perfected, but which is being poked with more and more holes every day in this wonderful day and age of information in multiple forms.

I hope, I think, that some of the current events unfolding are harbringers of much needed change. However, while there may be a slight glimmer at the end of the tunnel that one may construe as sunlight from the end of said tunnel, the possibility of it being the headlamp of an oncoming locomotive cannot yet be ruled out. Another passage from a King novel comes to mind as a source of optimism:

"They'll turn him out and put in some one who understands the Lesson:

Don't fuck the people over for too long. That's the lesson. Adam Clayton Powell found out. Agnew and Nixon did, too. Just... don't fuck the people for too long."

Roger Chadsworth

-The Dead Zone

Fear is a great blinder, but eventually even those scales fall off. And when they do, God help the Fuckers, that's all I'm saying...