While the last few years of American politics have been dominated by a distinct lack of bi-partisanship and willingness to work across the aisle to offer real policy solutions, I can’t help but think that it currently faces a greater threat: sheer ineptitude. The rhetoric that has dominated political debate over recent years has called for a reaction against Washington, against party politics and against the usual way of doing things. But instead of offering a productive alternative, we find ourselves left with a generation of politicians who vow to do things differently, but don’t seem to know how to do politics at all.
The battle cry for many a political hopeful today appears to be “politicians are bad people, but I’m not one of them”. But while this may offer them a quick win, it has helped to establish a climate in which people don’t have faith in either the motivations or abilities of their elected representatives. Having worked in a number of political offices, I find that such an attitude is often unfair and unwarranted. And it is particularly worrying that it is a point of view that is perpetuated by those involved in the business of politics themselves. I’d really like to say that they should know better.
Personally, I pride myself in my unapologetic commitment to my party and its cause, and I enjoy the confrontational style of politics that is beamed around the world from my home parliament in Westminster (though it’s definitely not perfect by any stretch of the imagination). But I don’t believe in attacking politicians just for the sake of it, nor merely to score cheap political points when we should be discussing real problems and their potential policy solutions. That reduces politics from its highest potential as “the pursuit of noble causes” to mudslinging that helps neither party, nor the people they are supposed to represent. When this happens we are left not with the best candidates for political office, but an uninspiring field of anti-politicians who are more concerned with scoring cheap political points than having the courage of their convictions to propose policies in which they believe.
This has been made painfully clear in the last couple of weeks as the Republican Party has continued its search for their next candidate for President. Mitt Romney, still the uninspiring front runner, has been criticized for his political flip-flopping and reluctance to take a real stance on any mildly controversial issue, but at least he’s professional enough to remember what he is talking about. Sadly, the same cannot be said about all of his rivals.
If it wasn’t bad enough that Rick Perry forgot the third federal agency his integral policy proposal would scrap (for 45 painfully long seconds of 
oops-ness) but we now have 5 minutes worth of Herman Cain’s apparent confusion over Libya. Now, I realize that Herman Cain is not an expert of foreign policy issues (and why should he be, he only purports to want to be the next President of the world’s last remaining super-power) but I would like to think that he may have paid enough attention over the past few months to be able to sound as if he has actually heard of the country before.
What is most worrying about these two embarrassing gaffes is not that they expose fatal flaws in the candidates’ knowledge, but that they highlight serious concerns about Perry’s and Cain’s motivations for running for office in the first place. They are obviously not on any ideological crusade, striving to represent the people because of some deep held beliefs that are at the heart of every aspect of their campaign. As EJ Dionne points out much more eloquently than I ever could, surely they wouldn’t have trouble recalling their fundamental beliefs if that were true?
Candidates at every level have been campaigning using anti-political rhetoric and an attack on the “professional” politicians they claim have forgotten the people. But what is wrong with a politician who takes their job seriously? Who is dedicated to their role as a representative of the people? Who would like to make good laws? There is a reason that most of us don’t put ourselves forwards to be elected representatives, it’s a hard and often thankless task. But even in a country that is as suspicious of government as the United States of America, governing is a crucial role on behalf of all of society. And if the choice is between professional and un-professional politicians, I know which I would choose.
Established in 1995, the Georgetown Public Policy Review is the McCourt School of Public Policy’s nonpartisan, graduate student-run publication. Our mission is to provide an outlet for innovative new thinkers and established policymakers to offer perspectives on the politics and policies that shape our nation and our world.