Wilting Laurels of Democracy

When we look to our representatives politically, what is it they are actually representing? It’s not us anymore that’s for sure. We look for leaders to head our glorious nation to rain prosperity down upon us from on high. We don’t even want representatives anymore outside of the local council or what have you. When it comes to heads of state, be they presidential or parliamentary, the main thing we the masses look for from both the left and the right is whether or not they’re a leader. Do they have what it takes to have their fingers on the button the last bastion of human hope in the fate of nuclear Armageddon?Can they crack down on the enemies of our society whether they’re terrorists, foreign nationals, refugees, drug addicts, organised crime, activists, immigrants, or lone wolf shooters? Can they pull us out of this recession? What will their policies do to the economy? Can they adequately represent our nation on the world stage? These questions are fair and valid  and fairly tantamount in the mind of the average voter, but along the way our western ideal of democracy has gotten distorted. An “informed voter” is little more than someone who reads, listens and watches the news made by people who have fairly similar ideas to them and knows when elections take place. Sure some might read all the sources, cut through the bullshit on their own. Good for them, but one thing is still missing from this ordered chaos of a representative democracy. The representation. We vote for politicians selected and put forward by parties that have become partially charitable investment pools by rich people (of the corporate and biological variety) allowing a nice little tax deductible grease to the cogs of our great political machine. We vote for candidates that “make sense”  and have “clear visions of the future”, those who will do whatever it takes to put the country first. When did we stop caring about voting for people who had our interests? Who would lobby and represent on behalf of the people who voted for them. We prioritised the rhetoric and polices of good politicians over the statements and representation of good people. In a way we replaced one aristocracy with another. We people who have no backgrounds in foreign affairs, tax policy, national defence, health, the environment, or the economy vote for people who are usually lawyers so they can make laws about things that they also  barely have a grasp on so they can keep getting money from whoever is donating to them so they can use this money to win more elections by making advertisements and passing out leaflets about how they’re great leaders and are cutting or raising taxes or spending money on nice things that we can use and need to survive as the cycle goes round and round again. We have created a political elite that doesn’t know what it’s doing most of the time, but the worst part is is they are not us. They rarely speak for us as much as they say they do. They read public opinion polls and focus group results and learn to say things that people like to hear but they are not of the people, or by the people for that matter. They represent who chose them not who elected them.To change this people need to rethink what makes a good politician and find that the fair and just representation of good people needs to be led by good people.