RALPH BAILEY: Political rookies aren't what they're cracked up to be
| Friday, Jun 04 2010 02:00 PM
Last Updated Friday, Jun 04 2010 02:00 PM
I enjoy the dozen or so opportunities a year I get to speak to school children. One of my favorite lines: "You are smarter than your parents!"
This jostles slumbering moms and dads who now want to know who the radio yahoo is who just called them dumber than a fifth grader. And the kids love it.
But then I corral them all back into reality by insisting "So if you are smarter than your parents, you will listen and obey everything they tell you. While you may be smarter, they know more than you. Whatever you may experience, they've probably been down that road a time or two."
My commencement thesis, experience matters, has me wondering if this crowded field of first-time candidates vying for political positions ranging from city council to governor of California is all it's cracked up to be. Would the founding fathers really want folks who've never run for anything in their lives tinkering around in a U.S. Senate race or bid to run a state the size of most countries?
We romantically maintain this notion that the founding fathers wanted "everymen" to come out of the hills and off the farms and help run this young government.
Whackadoo!
George, Thomas, Ben and the boys were the elite of our young society. These men were the crème de la crème, the best, brightest and richest who were some of America's prize intellectual and financial snobs. Men who would cringe at the idea of a woman who doesn't have time to vote spending $46 million to make sure you do!
It's not that politics is rocket science and that politicians are so much smarter than us average folk but it is much like show business. No matter how many times you rehearse you never know what it's really like till you hit that stage.
Do neophytes truly understand that politics is about one word and one word only: POWER? That all Sacramento politicians want to know is who has it, how do you attain it, to whom can you delegate it in order to gain more of it and who doesn't have it so we can weed them out like a lion scours the desert for the weakest prey?
It can be a mean, cruel business that takes no prisoners and asks no quarter. My fear is this rise in "newbies" will produce more of what I call the "The Gilmore Syndrome." It's a mental malady that hits new politicians who realize one night when all the consultants and yes men are fast asleep that there is no winning. That you must essentially sell your soul to attain the P word in order to get anything remotely done.
The good people, like Assemblyman Danny Gilmore who is leaving after one term, simply say, "To hell with this" and the more jaded become part of the system and there goes your theory of bringing in "new blood."
Plus, it takes time, sometimes years, to even begin to understand the nuances of governing and do we truly expect these first timers to walk away from their families, farms, dairies, local businesses and become ensconced in America's greatest, most diabolical, most incestuous and most lurid reality TV Show: "Real American Government?"
As evil as it may sound, career politicians are good.
The problem doesn't rest in the hands of the corrupt politicians but with us, the simple-minded electorate who are so hypnotized by stump speeches and empty promises we have to install term limits to save us from ourselves!
We cannot allow cronyism and bad politicians to scar us so that we demonize honest folk who merely want to dedicate their entire life to public service.
Just wait until the first brilliant idea gets squashed simply because its author has no "seniority" or until one of the new Republicans disrespects a powerful Democrat and the high school dirty tricks begin to rear their ugly head. ('What do you mean the locks on our office have been changed?')
And while we create a revolving door of serious yet wet-eared, milk-breathed leaders, the folks with real power, i.e. the lobbyists, remain entrenched, going nowhere and wielding more legislative juice than just about anyone in our capital.
I love that so many people believe they can affect change. But in our fervent desire to get rid of the old bath water, are we tossing out the babies and leaving the window open for folks to climb in like Arnold Schwarzenegger?
I fear these well-intended rookies will be overwhelmed by the petty nature of Democrats not remotely interested in the greater good but more interested in breaking their spirit, targeting their districts and gaining even more power.
I hope I'm wrong and that our young Turks won't be intimidated and can hold off the growing hoard of liberal legislators hell bent on setting the status quo in Sacramento cement.
Ralph Bailey, who hosts a talk show on AM 1560 KNZR, is one of four conservative community columnists whose work appears here every Saturday. These are the opinions of Bailey, not necessarily The Californian. You can e-mail him at rbailey@bakersfield. com. Next week: Heather Ijames.
