Politics ruins the character; it develops the worst and meanest qualities by forcing into the front of men’s minds their ambition, their vanity, their competitive spirit and their passion for influence and cheap popularity. The cause they are serving is pushed into the background. To many of them, politics is only a means to eliminate competitors, to conduct vulgar intrigues and to attain personal power.
Hans Voigt
Mesa
Arizona Willie posted at 10:26 am on Sat, Mar 17, 2012.
Truth -- I'll take a P and an M and a C please.
Dale Whiting posted at 7:16 am on Sat, Mar 17, 2012.
Leon and 'truth,'
It is becoming obvious that you cannot sense sarcasm when your read it. Socratties can and, seeing it, adds some depth to Hans' remarks. Ultimately we are the ones who are charged with keeping the politicians and their enormous egos in line. Just look what we can do! If you have forgotten, just ask Russell Pearce!
The last Arizona politician who had some sense of his own ego was Morris Udall. He attributed his ego to heredity. Boy do I miss Morris! Too bad the politician Udalls have all moved to New Mexico and Colorado!
sockratties posted at 4:44 am on Sat, Mar 17, 2012.
Hans -- I think you're almost right. Politics doesn't ruin character, it reveals it. It doesnt develop the worst and meanest qualities, it reveals them. The ambition, vanity, competitive spirit and passions were already there, they are made evident when placed in the spotlight.
We want our leaders to be ambitious, competitive and passionate. We also want them to display honesty, a moral compass and for their agenda to reflect the best interests of their constituents. This applies to both men and women.
The arena of politics is an excellent way vetting would be leaders, but it is up to us the determine when they don't pass the test. We too often hear what we want to hear and place the meanest dog in the fight just to satisfy our own agenda. This makes us just as suspect as the losers we elect.
truth posted at 3:31 pm on Fri, Mar 16, 2012.
The new Republican order, the party that claims to be the religious party wants to pass regulations for employees to report to their employers what their sex life consists of. I can just hear it now, you are at work and your employer asks you did you have sex last night? Did you use contraception? If so, YOUR FIRED. Before you can leave you have to sew a scarlet C on the front of your clothing, the C stands for using a contraceptive, if your boss had a very rough day he could have you sew a scarlet BK on your clothing for BABY KILLER. This could lead to a plenthora of other scarlet letters, scarlet P if you are caught looking at pornography, or a scarlet M for the naughty things young boys do, the possibilities are endless.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 12:59 pm on Fri, Mar 16, 2012.
Wow...maybe we should go back to having a monarchy or how about a dictator ???
Sorry, Charlie,.........I mean Hans.....you are stuck with a Democracy here in America. Our Founding Fathers back in 1776 almost came to blows a number of times hashing out the composition of our Legislatative, Executive and Judicial Branches of Government . The last time I looked....the ..."Gang of Three = Obama, Reid and Pelosi" hadn't completely flushed the Bill of Rights and the Constitution down the old "ky-bo" (aka....latrine...aka = toilet for all those East Valleyians who never served a single day in the US Military).