Politics & Politicians

 A real politician is a civil servant. A real politician serves the interests of the nation and not its own. A real politician is a human being, therefore not perfect; meaning that it will make a lot of mistakes and a ton of bad decisions; but is willing to admit to its errors, learn from them, correct them and avoid repeating the bad past.

A real politician understands that politics means accountability, not impunity; it signifies enriching the nation (on all levels: economic, social and spiritually), not bankrupting it; it translates into making hard choices and odd alliances if it serves the best interests of the country and not the interests of groups sharing the same political ethnicity; it reflects construction and progress, not destruction and digress.

Nowadays, real politicians are extremely rare, for either the political class is a bunch of leeches aiming at getting rich(er) at the expense of tax payers; or potential real politicians surround themselves by incompetent advisors who, having their own agenda, tread upon their good political will and make them look incapable.

Finding a real politician among Right Wingers is extremely hard. Rightists often sound like latent fascists; they seem not to understand that the world has changed and that the Right wing speech and stance must evolve, while maintaining the conservative principles that define The Right: God, Nation and Family.

There is rarely a real politician in the Left Wing as well. Leftists often sound like quiescent authoritarians; they seem not to grasp that the world has changed; that speaking of communism in the XXI century (a proven failed system) is démodé and against human nature; that the Left Wing philosophy must be restructured, since it has an important task in politics: to counter-balance the excesses of the Right.

Radical (far-Right and far-Left) Wings do not produce real politicians whatsoever; for they are dormant autocrats; and if people wish to wake up the monster (i.e. voting for them) they will sentence democracies to death penalty.

I see a political light at the end of the tunnel, though, when I look at politicians like:

• PM Binyamin Netanyahu: he bears all the exquisite ingredients to be a real politician, but he must seize the present opportunity to make the world understand that Israel shall not be the Isaac at the hands of the Western Abraham, waiting for some kind of whim to dictate whether it should be sacrificed or spared. If he’s not capable of making westerners understand Israel’s point view, he’ll have failed once again.
• President Barack Obama: he holds the finest ingredients needed to produce a real politician; however he must review some of his liberal foreign policies and be careful enough not to perpetuate the decayed image of politics by saying one thing today and another tomorrow. 

Image: The Dog by Francisco de Goya