Does it appear to you that our best and most capable no longer pursue careers in politics?

We knew that in the last presidential election.

They’re certainly in the minority. Though the immense coffers of the two dominant (and bought) parties influence them in such a way that they tend to select for pawns over people with real integrity and who are interested in serving the people rather than the moneyed interests that finance the parties.

We already know the country was bought and sold long ago.
There’s no incentive to stop rising rent or the housing crises when politicians are being paid by these people.

And even if a politician cared, they’d be the “new guy” that doesn’t realize they can’t change things and their real job is to call donors and ask for money.

There are some who care who aren’t new. I think Bernie Sanders just mentioned he set the record for the longest-serving Senator in US history. And he does have an organization for getting new progressive people who care into office, which has got several good new people elected to various offices.

It’s not that it’s not worth doing. It’s just difficult, mainly due to the domination of political donations, the two major parties, the corporate ownership of most media, and the level of big party corruption, and public resignation and (not entirely unjustified) cynicism.

They never did.

@Kropotkin That’s an interesting assessment. Considering the Presidents (as examples), it certainly holds true for Washington, but Lincoln was clearly another matter. Or don’t you regard him suitable for the designation of “our best and most capable”?

The top talent goes to executive positions in top Fortune companies.

Last time I checked the USA presidency only pays $400,000 a year while CEO pay is through the roof.

Qualifiers like “no longer” or “any more” imply a belief in a past that doesn’t exist. Also, you can’t Make America Great again.

@Zaku
Yea, unfortunately all major hurdles that have been really efficient at ruining the efforts of those few good men and women who care.

It’s slow progress, but I do still believe we’re gonna come out on top. They’re already testing out Universal Income for example.

There have been numerous presidents who have been clunkers, but it seems that not that long ago we had a few who had a certain presence that imparted a certain dignity to the office. Roosevelt and Truman and Eisenhower and Kennedy and even Johnson and Reagan. It does not seem as if it is going to happen again.

It has been true for decades. Certainly everyone since Eisenhower.

I was really disappointed recently when I learned that Ike was just as big of a bigot as Archie Bunker. He declared war on gays.

Shortly after swearing the oath of office, Eisenhower began weeding “subversives” out of the federal government. Elected amid the Red Scare, Ike had won the presidency partly because of a sense that the long-reigning Democrats were soft on communism, which in the public mind had become linked with homosexuality. A whisper campaign, abetted by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, tarred the recently divorced Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson, as a homosexual; Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen (Ill.) associated Stevenson with “the lavender lads of the State Department.” Ike’s campaign slogan, “Let’s Clean House,” alluded not only to corruption but sedition and sexual impropriety.

@smudges I believe you are exactly right that Eisenhower was equivalent to Archie Bunker. What you fail to consider is that they both were merely reflecting the attitudes dominant and considered “normal” and in fact ESSENTIAL in their day. Gays were regarded as not only subversive but downright immoral. They were categorized as sexual deviants in a society where sex itself was for all practical purposes illegal minus a certificate of marriage.

They do, except the qualities that we think of as being best don’t get you elected. We the people choose our leaders, and we choose bad ones for bad reasons.

Eisenhower give birth to Nixon…and Nixon started the great tradition of republican criminals in office.

Who can forget the disgraced Spiro Agnew?

I wish to clarify my answer above. I by no means believe Bunker equivalent to Ike in any respect other than that both reflect the norms in attitude prevalent in their productive years.

@HP No I don’t. I think there’s a lot of mythology and hagiography around people with high status.

Somebody’s gotta stand out. There are those worthy of respect and others to be reviled. It’s the human condition. There’s no avoiding it.