Breath of fresh air
I think everyone in politics now has been affected by the linguistic sleight-of-hand, which began with the Kennedys in the 1960s, in which politics is called "public service," and politicians are allowed and even urged to call themselves "public servants." ...
People who charge into burning towers are heroic; nuns who work with the poorest of the poor are self-denying; people who volunteer their time to help our world and receive nothing in return but the knowledge they are doing good are in public service. Politicians are in politics. They are less self-denying than self-aggrandizing. They are given fame, respect, the best health care in the world; they pass laws governing your life and receive a million perks including a good salary, and someone else--faceless taxpayers, "the folks back home"--gets to pay for the whole thing. This isn't public service, it's more like public command. It's not terrible--democracies need people who commit politics; they have a place and a role to play--but it's not saintly, either.
That's Peggy Noonan, contributing editor of the Wall Street Journal. I couldn't have said it better myself. I love the phrase "people who commit politics." There is more than one congressman who needs to be taken down a peg or two or three or...how many pegs are there? Maybe they should only get a pension after 25 years of service—like everyone else. Maybe they should lose their health benefits and have to deal with COBRA if they lose their job—like everyone else. Maybe their compensation should be in the form of stock in "the company." I'll bet they'd balance the budget and trim the burgeoning debt pretty damn quick, then. That or we'd end up with some Enron-type scandal. How about they be required to live in project housing for the duration of their tenure? How many would be rushing to "serve the public" then?
I realize that patting yourself on the back while fashioning a golden parachute is difficult work. And yes, I will admit they do perform a valuable service for our country. Still, it just seems wrong that men who sit on their ass all day, schmoozing, sucking up and brokering deals—usually over an expensive meal with fine wine, expensed of course—have such cushy salaries and benefits while other "public servants," say fire fighters or policeman or military troops, who actually risk their own lives to protect our lives and property don't have it half as good. Hell. They don't have it a third as good.