Why are politicans frequently the subject of ridicule?

mr_fegelien

compared to other professions (businessmen, actors etc..)? Politicans seem to garner the least respect in the publics minds in most countries in the world.

Even if people hate a particular musician, celebrity, or businessperson, there's an element of respect that people have which you don't see with politicans. They get made fun of. Why is this?

Christian75

In my opinion, politicians have the ungrateful task of making decisions which influence the lives of practically everyone. Thus their sphere of influence if far greater than that of an entertainer, musician or businessman. They easily garner disagreement and be blamed not only by those who directly disagree with their agenda but by anyone who just does not like the way his life is going. They are the easy scapegoats.

Secondly, and this to a large measure stems from the first reason, they are in the most prominent attention of the media who watch every misstep, every social blunder and personal slip-up and make it front page news. Unfortunately, people tend to stick to the bad and scandalous and forget the good.

I don't envy the politician of today. Even the most level-headed, constructive and sane leader who is relatively faultless will get quickly mired down into some controversy (real or imagined) and attacks, no matter how good his actions are.

PukkaStukka

What other profession offers to do so much when they want the job and then resile from that when they get it? That flip flopping only antognises people and undermines their confidence in politicians and politics.

Wanderer78

We elect them to change things, but a lot of the time, they simply can't due to the complexity of the systems and processes in place, democratic systems have major weaknesses at times

We also elect them to KEEP PROMISES THAT THEY HAVE MADE DURING THEIR GENERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN:
Like the one made in 2011 that NO ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY HOSPITAL DEPARTMENT would be closed.


........Roll on 8 weeks after the General Election Roscommon Hospital A&E was closed: Locals were also lied to beforehand in the frame of mind above. Off the topic of this thread but at the time RTE covered the closure of Roscommon A&E in detail: well done rte

That Health Minister is gone now at least.

Dwarf.Shortage

[Deleted User] wrote: »

We also elect them to KEEP PROMISES THAT THEY HAVE MADE DURING THEIR GENERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN:
Like the one made in 2011 that NO ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY HOSPITAL DEPARTMENT would be closed.


........Roll on 8 weeks after the General Election Roscommon Hospital A&E was closed: Locals were also lied to beforehand in the frame of mind above. Off the topic of this thread but at the time RTE covered the closure of Roscommon A&E in detail: well done rte

That Health Minister is gone now at least.

Caps lock

obviously I would'nt last 5 minutes as a councillor, with such a politically correct atmosphere. there. this post all lower case.

NovemberWren

Wanderer78 wrote: »

We elect them to change things, but a lot of the time, they simply can't due to the complexity of the systems and processes in place, democratic systems have major weaknesses at times

"due to the complexity of the systems and processes in place"

who? put these systems and processes in place? ...... simple - by making these, jobs, committees, reviews, etc. they are buying (and ensuring for themselves) the votes of all of the persons of these committees, reviews, jobs, etc. etc. etc.

Lack of transparency has to be a factor too.

You see politicians make mind-boggling decisions, with no explanation.
You see politicians go back on their word, with no explanation.
You feel politicians are being dishonest, and again, all the details are being hidden from you.

This doesn't just contribute to a lack of trust, but also makes their decisions and statements seem fickle and in some cases, moronic. In particular when the reasoning is political (as it often is), no one ever reveals "ah well, we have a bad relationship with that party and they wanted A so we had to choose B". So it looks like they're just making bad decisions.

I dont see how we could ever truly feel represented when the average Irish resident doesn't actually get anything explained to them. So it's only human nature to hold it against them when your taxes are paying them a higher salary than you and you've no clue why you dont have the services your local area needs.