Why I'll Never Get Into Politics

Posted by Joshua White on 01.03.2007

If they're criticizing John Edwards' life choices, I have NO shot!


Recently John Edwards formally announced that he was going to run for the presidency in 2008. Ignoring the very tired message that he was sending by making his announcement in front of a dilapidated house in New Orleans there was something that bothered me about the analysis of his statement.

Immediately after he announced that he was running, instead of talking about Edwards' policy choices, Fox News decided to talk about how rich he was. They newscaster explained to the the audience how rich Edwards was and that he is building a new "palatial" home in North Carolina. Was the point of all this to express admiration for the amount of hard work that Edwards put into his career? Was the point to say "Hey, Edwards has gone from poor to rich, just think of the amount of work he'd put into our country?" No. They were debating whether or not John Edwards was "working man" enough to work for the middle class.

Apparently, some on the right seem to believe, if you are ridonkulously rich, then you can't care and work hard for the poor and middle class. This is especially true of a (gasp) lawyer. It doesn't bother these same people on the right that there are current members of the Senate that are lawyers ( e.g. Trent Lott, Orrin Hatch) and that every one of them is wealthy. You have to be fairly wealthy to run for any high level of political office. But none of this matters when you're trying to make someone look like a piss-poor candidate.

And this is exactly what bothers me. No matter how smart, qualified, determined, ambitious, ethical, successful, or any other positive term that you want to apply a candidate, but he'll have done something in his past that isn't "presidential" (or whatever other post he is running for). Someone will find this out and post it everywhere. Then the analysts come and dissect the action.

"Was it that bad?"

"It happened 20 years ago...does that make a difference?"

"But what about this piece of competing information?"


The problem with all this discussion is that none of it matters!! Does it really matter that John Edwards is rich? Does it really matter that he's building a "palatial" mansion in North Carolina? People, can't he do all of this and still care about the middle class and the "working man"? (And if not, why not?) None of this matters and yet we're involved in this attack and defense game.

This only happens because talking about pure politics would be horribly boring for a 24 news channel. Talking about some one's views on abortion, tax cuts, and the middle class can only get you so far. Eventually, you have to move on to the fact that he dated a black girl in college (I'm talking about my hypothetical politician, not John Edwards...he'd never date a black girl. KIDDING!!!).

But the worst part about all these attacks for the media, leaks, and the politicians themselves is that it stops people from wanting to run in politics. Good, hard working, America-loving, red, white and blue-bleeding people don't want to get involved in the sort of situation where their past will be brought back to haunt them. And I'm one of them.

I'm not saying that I've committed any sort of crime or done anything terrible in my life, but I have gone to college. And, unlike them goody goodies on the Hill, I not only didn't go to Princeton, Harvard, or Yale but I also wasn't a class president, football captain, straight A student. I have done silly things that, as a college student, I found funny. I have done things make my wife glad that she didn't know me while I was in college. Again, none of this was illegal or horribly immoral, but when you run for president, governor, or senator, silly college stories can come back an haunt you.

I am not the most qualified person to be a governor right now. Then again, I'm not even 30 yet. However, I assume that there are plenty of people out there that are more qualified than I am but have the same sort of history (and probably much worse) than I do. These people, who really want to work for their state or country will not want to do so if their past can't be forgotten.

Young people do dumb things. Young people make mistakes. And in the day YouTube and viral videos their mistakes will be haunt these kids forever. Is the stupid prank that a 40 year old man pulled when he was 24 an indication of the type of man he is now? People change and the refusal to let the past go is going to stop a lot of mature, sensible adults (who once had a wild side) from going into office.

I have thought about running for office in the past. But if they are going to Edwards such a hard time for building a big house and for making lots of money, make Sam Alito's wife cry under a barrage of false allegations or her husband's "racism", then there is no shot for a regular guy like me to ever get into politics. Sure, maybe I could get elected mayor of a small to medium-sized town...possibly state senate, but anything bigger than that and the talons come out. Then people get elected or rejected not only based on their politics but on their past indiscretions.

It is all this drama and silliness that will keep me out of politics.



As this has been the holiday season (read: Christmas season) very little has been written, but here is some extra reading for all y'all:

Robison and Rivett get involved in the new 411 feud over Saddam and what a swell guy he was or wasn't.

I feel the rustiness that Easley feels. Yet, he still manages to write 40 thousand words.

Still don't know what to think about Gore in 2008? Read Dan Martin and know where to stand on the position.


Until next time…believe nothing unless you read it here.