One group of our elected officials are public servants in the absolute strictest sense of the term only; any denial or attempt at twisting this fact is hardly worth the effort. Let’s explore the implications of this statement a little closer.
On the surface, the term suggests a public servant quite literally serves the public. However, this is not how the term is truly defined. A quick definition search on Google returns, as expected, hundreds of thousands of results. Strikingly, none of the first dozen or so mentions serving anyone, much less the public.
One group of our elected officials are public servants in the absolute strictest sense of the term only; any denial or attempt at twisting this fact is hardly worth the effort. Let’s explore the implications of this statement a little closer.
On the surface, the term suggests a public servant quite literally serves the public. However, this is not how the term is truly defined. A quick definition search on Google returns, as expected, hundreds of thousands of results. Strikingly, none of the first dozen or so mentions serving anyone, much less the public.
The vast majority of definitions simply define a public servant as someone elected or appointed to a government office. Here is where the crux lies.
If a public servant is a government official of some sort then how do we reconcile the words ‘public’ and ‘servant’? If you lean to the liberal side, you probably consider the term in its implied meaning (i.e. a servant of the public). However if you lean to the conservative side, you probably consider the term in the strictest sense (i.e. an elected or appoint government official—public and servant are not part of the equation).
Consider this, Minnesota Senator Julianne Ortman (R-Chanhassen) in 2009 acted in the liberal sense as public servant in petitioning then Governor Tim Pawlenty. She did so in regards to a renter’s tax credit. Specifically, she implored the governor to retain said tax credit. However, her concept of a public servant has obviously changed.
Two years after her request to maintain the renters’ credit, she is now pushing reductions in the credit(mid-way down the page). Tellingly, back in 2009, Senator Ortman was new to her public servant role and obviously a bit confused what such a role entailed. In the intervening two years, she has been set straight about who she truly serves and how ‘public servant’ is defined.
It is unfortunate that a substantial set of our public servants have lost track of the implied meaning of that role, instead adopting a viewpoint that no longer considers the public at large. Rather, this set of public servants has redefined the public to such a limited group of people so as to completely negate the implied meaning of the term altogether—both locally and nationally.