Anybody who wants to run for office should be automatically disqualified. Politics should not be a career; it should be a calling. People are best governed by people who are like them – who work and add value and exist within the system of laws they are creating, not outside of it.
The problem is, of course, that those people are busy.
The people that aren’t busy producing oil or fruit or wine – the ones that have plenty of time for politics – are the brambles. They promise shade when they can’t provide it, and threaten fire to those who dare to question their thorny ‘protection’.
It’s a good metaphor, but is it true? That depends. On higher levels, maybe – but anyone who is driven enough to be successful at the highest level of anything is probably somewhat brambly, whether it’s politics or business or church or the arts. But there are lots of trees that find time amidst all the production to sway, at least a little bit. Local politicians, volunteers, leaders in organizations that aren’t Amazon… people who are driven to do good more or less for good’s sake, not for their own sake. Those are the trees we want to rule.
— MeganPrestonMeyer
The problem is, of course, that those people are busy.
The people that aren’t busy producing oil or fruit or wine – the ones that have plenty of time for politics – are the brambles. They promise shade when they can’t provide it, and threaten fire to those who dare to question their thorny ‘protection’.
It’s a good metaphor, but is it true? That depends. On higher levels, maybe – but anyone who is driven enough to be successful at the highest level of anything is probably somewhat brambly, whether it’s politics or business or church or the arts. But there are lots of trees that find time amidst all the production to sway, at least a little bit. Local politicians, volunteers, leaders in organizations that aren’t Amazon… people who are driven to do good more or less for good’s sake, not for their own sake. Those are the trees we want to rule.
— MeganPrestonMeyer
Such good points here! I have often felt the same way about people who run for office, but, as you say, then I see the ones doing this at the local level and see their earnest commitment to help. They are these good trees!
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