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| A little advice to all the new politicians Wednesday, March 03, 2010 Bob Buckel Nobody got elected to anything Tuesday. Those were just primaries. Even though some of the candidates will be unopposed in November, until then they’re still “nominees” of their party, not elected officials. They still have to listen.
Please note that the only elective office I ever held was president of my high school choir. Based on experience, I’m in no position to give advice to anyone. That has never stopped a newspaper guy. Nor does it stop the others – from pundits to plumbers – who presume every day to tell elected officials how to do their jobs.
So what’s my advice – Keep the soccer moms happy? Keep the doors open? Keep your campaign promises? A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Remember who you work for? Remember the Alamo? You’ve heard it all before. Here’s mine. Don’t let it go to your head.
Whether you won a squeaker or a landslide or were unopposed, don’t let winning make you think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. It should be a humbling thing to know that the voters trust you to hold office. That faith should deepen your resolve to serve, to give the best of your time and talent to the job. It should drive you to accomplish some lasting good – to make the county, the state, the nation a better place. Be a blessing. The way to do that is to know where blessings come from. In a very real sense, it’s not fair that we demand so much of candidates and then, as soon as they’re elected, begin the process of tearing them down. On the campaign trail, we want to hear and see people who are proud and confident, who have it together, who firmly grasp the problems and have devised solutions no one else has thought of. We want them to tell us their qualifications in glowing terms, to express their firm, unwavering beliefs and assure us that they know the answers. Candidates must constantly pat themselves on the back – right where we’ll stick our knives, once they’re elected. There’s nothing fair about it. If candidates were honest, they’d admit they don’t even know most of the questions yet, much less the answers. If they did that, they wouldn’t get elected. The campaign continues, so the self-aggrandizing will persist as well. I urge voters to try and ignore all that. Look at what they’ve done, not what they say they’ve done. Try to get an objective opinion. If the candidate is a sitting office-holder, judge him/her by the work they’ve done in office. If they’ve never held office (high school choir doesn’t count) then judge them by their success in business, their success in their family, their community, their church. If they’re not successful there, why would they succeed in office? If they’re not faithful with a few things, why should we entrust them with many? I urge candidates to have a very firm, realistic idea of your own strengths and weaknesses (remember, you do have weaknesses) and to be the same person once you’re elected that you were before. Get some advice from people who are not impressed with you. Talent will rise to the top, but hard work will yield better results in the long run. For the sake of the county, the state, and the country, I hope you have both. You’ve spent months acting like you have all the answers. Don’t fall apart when you learn the questions. We trust you. Earn that. Just keep it in perspective. Bob Buckel is publisher of the Epigraph |