Hubris goes along with it. Hubris is a sense of overbearing pride and arrogance for the position in society the person fills. Politicians are noted for suffering from this. As they swagger across the landscape they feel they alone are responsible for the development of, they pollute the air and surroundings with the squalid essence of their own corruption. No cologne can cover the scent either; otherwise nobody could set the dogs of law on their trail successfully.
In several Louisiana communities, elected officials are accused of misdeeds; the moral equivalents of high crimes and misdemeanors. Mayors and police chiefs are under indictment.
People have always looked upon elected officials as being apart from the crowd. Politicians seek attention. They advertise hope and change.
They challenge us to imagine a better world. Then they ask to lead the charge. They want recognition as dragon slayers. They’ll capture the flag and lead us in vanquishing our enemies. While dodging the slings and arrows of political adversity they advertise their effort as selfless altruism, they’re unselfish defenders of right and justice. They alone can “get the job done.”
And, like good little guppies, we swallow the bait, the hook, the line and the stinker.
Politicians want votes. They make promises In exchange for votes. They negotiate, cajole, demand, threaten and push to get their agendas completed. They expect obedience. They feel they deserve the honors. They expect the homage. They demand respect solely for the fact they have a title.
Now look at the word:
title. It’s the primary constituent element of the word en-title-ment (n.) meaning:
power, prerogative, privilege. The noun defines a sense of being which is an action in itself. Existence for such people becomes privilege. And, nobody I know throws away a privilege, especially if it separates them into a position of superiority as it defines all others as inferior. It unfavorably defines the idea of “being above it all”.
Politicians want friends. The loftier their position, the loftier they feel their friends’ homage to them should be at times. The pedestal they’ve placed themselves on places them in a thinner atmosphere diluting their thought process to a point where privilege is misunderstood as right and the demand for praise and worship supersedes their command of respect. Real friends are displaced by false flatterers and flunkies trying to snatch the crumbs the politician drops from his plate. The politicians sacrifice their self- respect for toys and baubles. They believe they’re above the law, because they feel they direct the law.
For all of the education politicians hold, for all of the persuasive elements of their oratory, for all of the trappings they put forward to win election they sacrifice a simple understanding of political import: friends are no longer friends – they’re constituents. And constituents need services and protection from deviant forces abroad. When you accept a gift from one constituent and it affects your conduct toward another it’s not helping a friend, it’s called favoritism and cronyism. Football tickets aren’t a gift from a “friend” – they’re seen as a coercive element to reward your jumping through the right hoops when commanded to. It’s a privilege others can’t enjoy.
When you think a “friend” is helping you succeed, he may be greasing the rails to your slide toward perdition.
Some are calling this “entrapment” conducted by the FBI. This is a fallacy. It’s more symptomatic of the growing class of people placing themselves in a position and supposed superiority by election.
It all boils down to two (2) simple facts: “If it seems too good to be true; it probably is” and the last one is also axiomatic: “you can’t get something for nothing”. And finally I’ve never seen an honest man get conned.
Thanks for listening
