Benjamin Wachs: We get the politicians we elect

Eric Massa has gone from “congressman nobody’s heard of” to “congressman best known for supporting only a single payer health care plan” to “has-been nut job muttering about Democratic conspiracies to Glenn Beck” — in less than a week. Things really do happen faster in the information age. Congressmen used to go 30 or 40 years before having a meltdown. Now they can’t make it through a single term.

Massa isn’t the first politician to refuse to leave gracefully, and he certainly won’t be the last. In fact, it looks suspiciously like no one may ever leave politics gracefully again. If Eliot Spitzer (the first man in history to have a sex scandal that absolutely no one could sympathize with), Mark Sanford (not the first man to claim that his adultery was God’s will, but certainly the least convincing), Tom Delay (a trailblazer who saw reality TV as a good career move after Congress) and Charles Rangel (whose corruption at least made it to the Caribbean instead of the Appalachian Trail) are the stars that guide us, it seems that dignity is a relic of a lost era.

This is a circular process with a terribly corrosive effect. We want to be lead by men and women of character and dignity, but we elect buffoons and morons and put them in a toxic political environment where, predictably, they act like buffoons and morons. They resent us for holding them to higher standards, say so in public and, thus, lower the bar for the next group of buffoons and morons who go into politics.

But you can’t blame them. We elected them. We gave them power.

We talk a lot about voter apathy in this day and age, without acknowledging that refusing to vote for the lesser of two game show hosts can be a rational choice. But that’s the wrong apathy to focus on. The more important apathy is how the very best people opt not to put themselves forward to serve — which, given our political climate, is an unimpeachable choice.

The problem isn’t just that we elect bad people. It’s that anyone with enough character to understand how toxic the political environment is has enough character to steer clear. The further they move from the public sphere, the more room there is for Eric DeLay Spitzer Sanford to run for office.

So let’s clear this up now. If you want to elect a generation of politicians who will not engage in character assassination when they’re in office, don’t vote for politicians who engage in personal attacks while they campaign.

If you want to elect a generation of politicians who will not plunder the public coffers when they’re in office, don’t vote for politicians who have constructed slick campaign fundraising machines before they’re even elected.

If you want to elect a generation of politicians who will put the good of the country before their own when they’re in office, then only vote for politicians who have a history of putting other people first when there aren’t cameras around.

Of course, it’s almost impossible to find candidates who fit these criteria. That’s the point. The system by which we vet and elect candidates is so broken that it encourages exactly the kind of person who would rather construct a fundraising dynamo to smear their opponents than spend time worrying about education or roads.

To some extent, systemic changes would help. Public financing of elections would make a difference. But mostly, it comes down to us. People of character don’t pander. If our most important criterion for electing public officials remains their ability to pander to us, then we’ll elect entertainers, and they’ll behave like prima donnas the moment they get the chance.

Benjamin Wachs writes for Messenger Post Media's print and online editions. Read his work at www.TheWachsGallery.com.

The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the newspaper.