When winning becomes the goal rather then the toolFollow

This seems like an incredible claim to make, and in a tight race, it seems foolish to make such an absurd and easily disproved statement. It's a common symptom of election politics, that it becomes more about getting elected as the goal, rather then the what you want to do while elected, but I'm always disappointed.

Is there any way to stop politics from being about the race?

Edited, Apr 7th 2010 2:57pm by Xsarus

Change it so that the terms are 7-10 years long, and so that someone can be in office for only one term. That way, politicians can do things that, while unpopular, will increase the quality of life, and happiness for the country without worrying about being re-elected.

And this will decrease the amount of lying during a campaign how, exactly?

Edited, Apr 7th 2010 2:42pm by gbaji

I think he means that he think it will politians try to follow the will of and what is good for the people more closely when they don't have to constantly judge what they are voting or advocating against whether or not they can be re-elected.

But, no, this won't help the lying during campaigns any. Other than there will be fewer campaigns to lie in, I suppose.

Tulip,



So you would rather not to be able to hold elected officials accountable for long periods of time?

I'm not endorsing it, Varus. Just trying to explain it.

But it's always nice to get confirmation that you don't fully comprehend what's going on at any given time.

Yes. I got that. I happen to think that's incredibly naive. What will happen is that politicians will all lie and tell the people what they want to hear when campaigning, and then do whatever the hell they want once they are in office. And "whatever the hell they want" will in most cases end out being "doing what whomever bids the best paying cushy job after he leaves office wants him to do".

The only power the people have over their elected officials is their ability to choose to elect someone different next time around. The "everyone serves one term" idea sounds great until you spend 5 seconds thinking about it. Then you realize it's probably the stupidest idea ever floated.

Edited, Apr 7th 2010 4:03pm by gbaji

Mark this day.

For we shall remember it as the day of "Gbaji was finally right about something"-day.

So we have term limits in California state government and it has turned out poorly. Although in theory the final term is free from undue influence, the opposite has turned out to be the case. Generally, they are all politicians and wish to continue in politics. Our governor, for example, is an exception. So they are all trying to continue to move up into the state senate or into the house, or wherever. And this is controlled by the party, to a large extent, by whom they financially support.