What should one expect from elected officials?
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,993
I've been thinking about what I expect my elected officials to do once in office especially if they are the ones I voted for, but I'm feeling unsure.
Should I expect them to never compromise on issues?
Should I expect them to compromise on issues with opposite party? If so, how much.
Do I just try to vote for the one with most wisdom and assume they are trying to do their best?
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 17,817
It is impossible to not compromise in politics if you want stuff done. Someone unwilling to compromise is generally more interested in talking about politics than doing politics. It is not uncommon, compromises can be uncomfortable. Still, something as simple as deciding which roads get sidewalks is usually done on compromise (budget vs safety vs local interests vs whatnot).
However unwillingness to compromise on key issues is another thing entirely, if some key issue is a very important to you, find a politician (or party depending on country) who does not compromise on that issue. Some politicians or parties often focus on wing factions or single issue politics to gather these votes; they might not be the ones who end up leading a nation, but if they are politically savvy they can still accomplish a lot.
Exactly what values you want in people you vote for is up to you. I would set the bar higher than "trying to do their best". While aspiration to do well is nice, I think ability to do well is better.
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 61,117
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 24,817
Expect them to do what gets the re-elected or raises the most money
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 78,077
Ideally what I'd like to expect is minimal competence. Equal emphasis on minimal and competence.
+1 tame_deuces comments on compromise.
Join Date: Mar 2020
Posts: 2,504
This is a bit of a swerve, but on a recent podcast of the Portal, Eric Weinstein and Balaji Srinivasan discussed whether in the year 2021 we should be looking to a different "pool" for our political leadership class.
They noted that most (all?) of our political class is trained in the social sciences, including lots of JD's; with basically no one with a STEM/information technology background. As a counterpoint, they used the examples of the leaders of Singapore and Estonia, who both have STEM backgrounds, and how divergently they responded to the COVID crisis, and postulated they may also be able to navigate the future better due to their backgrounds.
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 1,851
Its like a boat at sea, politicians need to have a overall direction and at the same time they need to respond to the immediate movements in the sea. You could call it idealism vs realism, none of them are great on their own i think.
