Politicians are perfect representatives.

[cn03]

"How can those stupid politicians represent us? They only care about the rich including themselves instead of us average workers. If they were true representatives of the people who elected them, they'd be representing ordinary people who they even claim to support. Right?"

No, they are perfect representatives. They are just as selfish and ignorant as you. You care only about your survival, including your family, friends and country. You care only about your interests, your worldview, your opinions while not seeing the big picture. If you had come to the top, you would've become just like them. There's really not much that differs you from your country's representatives.

Look around once. See society as a whole with its variety of different backgrounds, social circles and age groups. The average worldview and attitude of your country's society is quite accurately equivalent to the worldview and attitude of your country's politicians. If it wasn't, the system would radically change in a short amount of time.

[Leo Gura]

Precisely!

Good contemplating.

[Preety_India]

There's a difference. 

We don't have the same responsibility as politicians do. We are on a much smaller scale whereas a politician is held in high regard in the expectation that he might shed light over social issues and use his leadership to bring effective solutions to current problems. His leadership is trusted with every vote given to him. 

So he isn't expected to be completely like us or else we would not look at him/her with great admiration and respect. He definitely mirrors us in a nonchalant way yet he has qualities and capabilities much better than the common man. 

He is a representative of our struggles and problems because he resonates with them but he is also a representative of leadership, tact and intelligence which makes us believe in his authority and decisions.

Its another matter that we allow any Tom Dick and Harry to become a leader or politician. That way it's more likely that the person we elect is very similar to us in ideals and visions. 

But hypothetically it shouldn't be this way. 

The politician is a leader, a statesman, a skilled diplomat he leads the way and he is a visionary. He shouldn't be an ignorant selfish small minded person. 

This is like saying books are bad because of the authors who write them. No. Books are not bad. Authors are. There can be good authors too. They don't represent the bad ones. 

[cn03]

In my country and probably in some others, the main critique against politicians is that they can't identify with the average person anymore, because they live in their own bubble. The person complaining about this is mostly also living in his own bubble. Getting rid of ignorance is bursting that bubble to see more than one's own perspective. Goals will then exceed the paradigm of society and seem way too radical to most people. A true visionary is very hard to find in politics, because few people resonate with his ideas.

You need to clearly separate qualities like intelligence, rhetorical skill and ambition from a person's paradigm and ignorance. Most politicians we have are in fact very intelligent, rehtorically skilled and ambitious. But they are of course in the same paradigm like most of society, which still tends to ignore everything that is above or below it. That's why we see agressive and pointless debating without arriving at a conclusion. It's all about defending the own perspective while blocking away everything else.

[Hatfort]

I agree, but I think is also a bidirectional influence. I mean, laws and conditions established by the politicians mold the game society plays, even for those who don't like or agree with it.

[Ottavio]

I don't think we should ask politicians to reflect or stand for something as complex and ethereal as the 'people's interest', which is something that I would claim that doesn't even exist. At most, politicians could get to reflect and stand for their voter's interests and the ideals that they resonate with.

If any, it would be the whole political system (meaning the totality of political institutions, from the Federal Government and Congress to the smallest Council, including far right and left political parties , anarchists and so on), rather than just the politicians, what could be able to reflect that hypothetical and utopian 'people's interest'.

In my view, a good politician, a good statesman (or woman) wouldn't be the one that eventually  gets to connect with that dream 'people's interest'..., that is fantasy; but rather the one who's able to lead and converge the people's enthusiasm and energy around his own goals, interests, ideals and worldwiew, which by the way, does not necessarily mean, watch out, that those goals, ideals and worldview have to be selfish or bad  for the people. I mean, they could, but nor as a matter of course.

Kind regards from South Europe.

[Matt8800]

On 12/19/2019 at 4:36 PM, cn03 said:

"How can those stupid politicians represent us? They only care about the rich including themselves instead of us average workers. If they were true representatives of the people who elected them, they'd be representing ordinary people who they even claim to support. Right?"

No, they are perfect representatives. They are just as selfish and ignorant as you. You care only about your survival, including your family, friends and country. You care only about your interests, your worldview, your opinions while not seeing the big picture. If you had come to the top, you would've become just like them. There's really not much that differs you from your country's representatives.

Look around once. See society as a whole with its variety of different backgrounds, social circles and age groups. The average worldview and attitude of your country's society is quite accurately equivalent to the worldview and attitude of your country's politicians. If it wasn't, the system would radically change in a short amount of time.

@cn03 Agreed. That is why Trump represents America so well. He will represent America for another 5 years because of that.