The Three Year Old Politician

Recently I was listening to some political free speech about the actions of our federal government, in the course of which it was suggested "we the people" contact our representatives and yell at them for their bad behavior. Then I was struck by a thought. What if these same politicians actually Like to be yelled at? Of course! They want us to yell at them. That's what gives them their power. I know that our founders wanted to ensure we had the right to petition our government for our grievances, but I don't think this is what they had in mind (not all of them, anyways!), a system whereby the politicians can generate their own political capital at will.

Here's how this machina horribilus works. First the politician thinks of some action to take that will offend a good chunk of his electorate. This outrages people. He or she then apologizes, claims a mental health day and reverses course. People rejoice that they have had an effect on their representative, and feel genuinely grateful that he or she has listened them. The politician has just created "political capital" out of thin air, protecting people from him or herself! Its one of the oldest rackets in history, and is also know as "extortion." This bizarre attention getting behavior is exactly the sort practiced by my three year old child.

But the machine grows ever more horrible. What happens if we try to ignore this childish behavior? Alas, like the three year old, the actions get progressively worse until they Make you pay attention to them, darn the consequences. So in fact, the only way to deal with these children is to vote them out. Responding to their "altruistic" calls for "connecting with their constituents" just seems to increase their already enormously bloated power.

The same goes for the critics. Why should we give the politicians warning that we're displeased with them? They might reverse course and stay elected. If we're displeased, we should vote them out, period. If we all ignored them, we would only end up with politicians who actually had to govern by their own principles, and not by their moist finger poking out into the political winds. They might actually have to feel accountable for their actions. They might start following their campaign promises, and we might actually have to start listening to them.