If you wonder, how come so many of our politicians never seem to come close to fulfilling any of their promises so campaigned upon, then look no further than the quote above as given to us, by the inestimable, Ambrose Bierce. While there are a lot of good reasons why people get into politics – one should never underestimate that one of the main reasons why so many are interested in politics is for their own personal gain, as well as for the power that is accorded to them. Whether or not a politician is a personage on a national scale, or strictly on a local scale, we do so find, that the budgets and programs that these politicians are involved with, are often quite impactful. So then, those particular others that know certain politicians who they are able to exert influence over or are able to work well with, will find that a quid pro quo relationship is often quite beneficial, and typically so, at the expense of the general public.
It would be appropriate if our political representatives, actually represented the people; and further to the point, actually accomplished what they were elected to accomplish or at least nobly tried to, but that isn’t the reality of what so occurs. It would be fairer to state, that the most successful politicians are absolutely masterful in spinning what is so occurring in a way in which it appears that the general public is actually benefiting, when more times than not, they are stuck with the short end of the stick, instead. The main problem with immense power is that it has a strong tendency to take even those of good character, and melt them in a way that they so become the servant to that power. After all, every single human person is subject to giving in to their weaknesses, as well as having difficultly controlling their own foibles; whereas, all those that really want something from a politician, have a strong knack of exploiting those very same weaknesses, and will often not relent until they get what they so came for. Additionally, there are also those politicians, in which, from day one, they so sought their particular position, for the expressed benefit of their own self, and thereby for their own private advantage, and of which, their only real thought has been consistently how to best spin things and thereby to maintain control of the narrative, in which, they are able to thus subsequently best sell the illusion that they are doing right by the people, when they are mainly doing wrong.
Politics, offers two basic temptations, for those that become its politicians, of which, the first is the power to make policy which will unfairly benefit some entity at the expense of some other; and the second is the ability to structure things in a way and manner, in which the politician will personally benefit, if not so at the present time, then at a future time, so agreed upon. The only possible way for the general public to achieve some sort of virtuous influence upon these sorts of temptations, is when all that which is being done under their name, is discussed and thereby disseminated in a way in which that forum is open, transparent, and subject to a fair investigation. If not, what will so happen is what happens, which is that those that are in politics, are often there essentially to advantage themselves in conjunction with all those that best help them to do exactly that.