Born to be a Politician

"What we require is that those who take office should not be lovers of rule. Otherwise there will be a contest with rival lovers. What others, then, will you compel to undertake the guardianship of the city than those who have the most intelligence of the principals that are the means of good government and who possess distinctions of another kind of and a life that is preferable to political life?" - Plato

Plato explained that our political leaders must first be trained and educated before they ever have the opportunity to be corrupted. That is that our young students should be taught the beauty and usefulness of math, science, history, philosophy, and the arts. The brightest should be chosen to further study economics, governments, law, and diplomacy. The best of those should be chosen to participate in the public sector (even at a young age) to get real exposure to the realities of effective and ineffective governance. The most talented and capable of these young adults will continue their studies and eventually become the politicians of the next generation. Politicians will have a context to understand their role and the experience to do it well. They will be chosen for their abilities and not their actual desire or love of politics.

This goes directly against the current method in which politicians rise to power. Today, those people who are the most power hungry, who desire to rule, who will do anything to get to the top; well those are the ones who end up running our government. And should we expect anything different from a system that encourages the very worst people to be most capable of achieving the most powerful positions in government.


Our “leaders” are not the best and the brightest, they are not our shining light. Some are very dedicated and capable, but almost all of them love to “rule” and do not love to be effective public servant. Here is a portion of the powerful politicians (US Senators, US Congressmen, Governors, and Mayors of large cities) who have been indicted in the past 15 years. Sadly, I couldn’t find a complete and if anything has one, please let me know.

Rick Renzi
William Jefferson
Mark D. Siljanderl

Tom Delay
Ted Stevens
John Doolittle
James Traficanta
Michael Meyers
Rick Renzi

Dan Rostenkowski

Rod Blagojevich

Brian Krolicki

Eliot Spitzer

Don Siegelman

Marion Barry

Joe Bruno

Scooter Libby

Larry Craig

Bob Ney

Tom Delay

William Janklow

James Traficant

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