Advoken's Blog

– Another reason to vote for Joe Biden

Yes, I’m here to praise politicians. Not all of them, of course, but those politicians who believe in democracy, who believe that they need in most cases to listen to the demands of the voters, and, at other times, to have the courage to act against the majority will when they believe it is right course to take.

Few people seem to admire politicians, viewing them as dishonest weasels or, even worse, corrupt, selfish and pompous. 

But let’s truly consider this. “Good” politicians are essential to a democracy. How do we define “good?” Is “good,” in my view, only those who agree with me? No, of course not.

What then is a “good” politician? He or she is first and foremost someone who believes in seeking always to balance decision-making with a number of different criteria, such as:

• Recognizing the differing needs of his or her constituents.
• Understanding that it’s not possible to satisfy every need, but to consider all of them.
• Having the guts to make a decision that may upset his/her supporters when it’s the right thing to do.
• Providing leadership, even when it’s not popular, since this is the key to governing, to getting action and accomplishing positive changes for society. 

Thus, the “good” politician must perform a balancing act. In a sense, this politician must walk the tightrope balancing all sorts of demands, while keeping an eye on the eventual goal of reaching the other side. While doing all this balancing, he/she must never lose sight of the basic principles of honesty, commitment to the cause of representative government and the need to provide leadership.

It’s not an easy task, but our most successful Presidents, governors and legislators have done that by practicing good politics.

They include George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, the two Roosevelts, Theodore and Franklin D., Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and maybe Barack Obama, even though we need to await the judgment of history to include him. All of the above were basically career politicians and all were largely successful in leading the nation. Not every reader here will agree with the inclusion of one or two listed above, but it would be hard to argue that they were not largely successful in achieving many of their respective goals.

Interestingly, too, all of the above made mistakes, some causing terrible tragedies. Some even have been accused to doing shady actions at times in their careers. Take Lyndon Johnson, for instance, whose leadership provided our nation with truly life-changing achievements in voting and civil rights and in creating Medicare and Medicaid; yet, he also led us into the ill-fated Vietnam War. Though an actor by trade, Ronald Reagan also a politician. He emerged from navigating the politics of his presidency of the Screen Actors Guild to becoming governor of California before he became President in 1981. He has been credited with ending the Cold War, but he also helped move the nation into growing income inequity and was deeply involved in the discredited and illegal Iran-Contra Scandal. 

None of the most effective presidents were ideologues; nor were they purests. Instead they were presidents who got things done; they pushed and campaigned hard for a goal, and then took what they could get. President Obama’s passage of the Affordable Care Act is a case in point; it squeaked through Congress by the narrowest of margins. The ACA is certainly a flawed act. To assure passage, Obama agreed to drop the public option that would have made the law much more effective, but if he had persisted in that goal, it was pretty obvious there’d be no ACA at all.

Our “good” presidents have not been perfect, but they showed flexibility and an ability to work with others to provide positive change.

And, all had plenty of political experience before they took office; rarely has the novice politician been truly successful. Joe Biden brings 47 years of political experience; our current president has three-and-one-half years. Donald Trump came into the office as a businessman, expecting to act like a CEO who is able to make an order and see everyone jump through hoops to complete his command. Thankfully, in a democracy, there’s no place for one-man rule. That only occurs in a dictatorship.

Of the two, Joe Biden is the only one who has the political skills, experience and decency to become one of our nation’s “good” presidents. With Donald J. Trump on the other hand it’s “amateur hour,” creating some awful outcomes. For me the choice is easy. – Ken Germanson, Nov. 2, 2020