By Morf Morford, Tacoma Daily Index

I’ve met and even worked with a few politicians at the local level, and even encountered a few at the federal level. For the most part, I have to say that the ones I have met have been decent, honorable dedicated individuals – and the closer I look at the work and demands they face each day – and, in most cases, far beyond anything like a normal working schedule, I see they face demands few of us could cope with.

We have a representative form of government, which means that our politicians are obligated to literally represent us.

One quick glance around any neighborhood, let alone precinct or legislative district, shows not just diversity, but a multitude of coalescing, colliding and contradictory positions and perspectives, priorities and best, or all too often, worst case scenarios.

Alarmist rantings seem to get some candidates elected. But getting elected is very different from governing. And governing is what politicians are literally hired to do.

If you, as an elected official, have a list of favorite tirades, dystopian fantasies or political conspiracy theories, feel free to express them – but don’t expect public taxpayers to subsidize your pet projects. You were elected to represent US – not your in-laws, friends or favorite causes.

With all that in mind, I have some reminders and maybe even a few warnings.

Where you came from

First of all, don’t forget where you came from. Our origins and early experiences frame, even define our characters, values and perspectives. Our childhood friendships, family dynamics and church, school or neighborhood encounters set the stage for how we perceive, engage with and respond to inevitable challenges later in life.

Who you represent

You were not elected to serve your own interests – you were elected to serve OUR interests. You were elected to protect and preserve OUR rights and priorities – and, in most cases, protect the rights of future generations of citizens.

In other words, as an elected official, many eyes are upon you – not just the eyes of those who voted for you (or didn’t) but the eyes of many who might be hundreds or even thousand of miles away, and of course, those not of voting age, or even born yet.

The policies you propose, or even put into action will be a reference point for those who follow you. They may build on what you have established – or reject it entirely.

Whether you are re-elected or not, you are not your office, and your office is not permanent.

For better or worse, you will be a model, or a target for years to come.

Whether you intend it or not, you are leaving a path and setting precedents.

Leaders, elected or corporate, are in the public eye at all times. Whether on vacation or on the job, in office or not, the world never stops watching.

You represent us precisely because you are one of us. Never forget that.

Your job is not, and never will be, to make pronouncements on policies about how any of us should live. To put it simply, we didn’t elect a king – or a mother.

Your office is not the platform for your personal agendas.

I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible to any public office of trust or profit in the Republic. – H.L. Mencken

Why you are in office

To put it simply, you are in office to do what you were elected to do. In other words, you were hired to get something done.

Situations will shift and unexpected events will emerge. You will find yourself in increasingly complicated, even contradictory quandaries. What seemed so simple suddenly appears immensely complex.

With too many moving parts, shifting alliances and competing philosophies, getting something done is not the concrete, definable, measurable act we thought it would be.

America has the best politicians money can buy – Will Rogers

What was once a quip from a comedian has become a truism, and, thanks to the cross currents of the past few years, like many sayings and proverbs that have stood the test of time, has itself, lost its meaning.

Will Rogers meant his comment to be a reference to the near-inherent corruption of American politics (at every level) of his era.

Due to budgets and time constraints, the “best” of politicians, as in effectiveness and public image, has, for most of us, become a higher priority. “Best” is, of course, subjective, open to interpretation and perhaps most of all, subject to the whims of history and passage of time.

“You get what you pay for” may be true in the marketplace, but “paying” and politics, in a free and fair representative form of government should be, at minimum, strictly monitored.

Avoiding even the appearance of impropriety

There have been time when politicians (and other public figures) avoided anything that had any hint of scandal or impropriety. That time is clearly gone, but any politician who does not come out of public office with a dramatic increase in net worth (far beyond their official salary) is rare indeed.

In misinformation (some of us) trust

There was a time when we, perhaps naively, expected our politicians to tell us the truth. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, if anything were icons and models of truth.

Some of us still expect our politicians to speak, repeat and retweet verified, confirmed truth.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) describes algorithms (such as ChatGPT, Bard and others) that can be used to create new and convincing (no matter how false) content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos.

In short, political campaigns will be nothing like they were in the past.

There is no excuse for passing along deceptive or even misleading information. The stakes are far too high.

A pox on both your houses

Almost half of registered voters across America describe themselves as “independent”. This means that almost half of us who could (and probably will) vote, are not impressed by, or attracted to, either the policies or candidates of the two major political parties.

That means that just over half of the voters in America are (approximately evenly) divided between each of the two major parties – and that also means that independents continue to be the largest political group in the USA.

Virtually every “independent” I have talked to tells me that they didn’t leave their party, their party left them.

At the same time, a “do nothing” (and all too often, know and believe nothing) Congress is not what any of us, of any political philosophy, believe is best for our country. Or our future.

Fringe causes, nutty conspiracies and “culture war” rantings may “energize the base” but they won’t persuade reasonable and rational voters caught in the middle of pointless arguments.

What most of us want is very simple – we expect you to do what we hired you to do.

******

There’s a well-known story of a Native chief visiting the White House many years ago.

State and national capitol buildings are designed to impress. And this chief was impressed. But not in the way that was intended.

Among the grandeur and marble columns, he asked a very simple question; “How does the average citizen’s home compare to this?”

On hearing that the average person’s home looked nothing like this, he responded gravely, “Among my people it would be a great shame to live so much different from them. My job is to take care of them, and only when the poorest among my people is safe and secure have I done my job.”