Growing old is inevitable; growing up is still optional. --Lynda Wilcox
There is one thing for sure we should have learned since 2015: politics is for grown-ups. Not a children's game; not for those immature individuals who prefer to push and shove and bully their way, maintaining the advantage either by size or cunning or deceit, living as though they are superior, entitled, always able to keep the toy they deserve, never to share it with anyone else.
After seeing this performance play out on the national scene over the past five years we recognize a need, a necessity to reflect on the process now in place that invites and allows a person to pursue a political appointment. The present system is open to pretty much anyone who is beyond a certain age and able to communicate with some degree of proficiency. That is pretty much the requirement, that and having an adequate following to support the campaign might successfully propel the candidate into public office.
Maybe its time to expand the criterion for holding public office and continuing in this service so as to make it a professional calling, to make service in this particular vocation safe for the rest of us.
Look at other professional vocations. They have in common a measure of performance standards to protect the public from malpractice. Regardless of one's physical standing, economic advantage, capacity to lie and con and shove and push and bully, they must satisfy a few fundamental qualifications. One cannot for instance hang up a sign over a door advertising the services of a dentist or an attorney then purchase the necessary technical equipment and begin to practice. Nor can one simply put on a uniform and suddenly become a professional baseball player or reputable soccer player.
For example, take the requirements for driving a motor vehicle or piloting an aircraft. In order to qualify for a license a person must take a test and meet physical capacity requirements. Afterward when the license has been granted it is both limited to the operation of a certified category of machines and contingent on future evaluative standards being satisfied. Once a drivers license has been issued it is destined to expire and the person having it must renew the license after a designated number of years and sometimes take another examination to ensure the individual is still eligible to continue operating the vehicle safely. A pilot license however does remain active indefinitely and will only be revoked after a serious violation of flying rules. Yet even without this deviation of established aviation rules the pilot must provide a current medical certificate in order to fly the aircraft lawfully.
Therefore it is not unreasonable to demand of our public servants some additional measure of performance standard before they are allowed to enter into and remain in the political arena. Considering what manner of evaluative content should define this standard measure we can begin to imagine certain elements that would be important to include. Then we could postulate some possible criterion for a person to satisfy before they begin the pursuit of public service. As in the other cases mentioned above anyone who meets this standard would be able to convenience the public that we could expect the individual to safely perform the designated service upon which they are positioned by the electoral process.
The oath of office is already a standard criteria for a public servant, and it should remain in force. Yet as we have observed over the past few years allegiance to the oath is not a guarantee that the servant will keep us safe from danger or deception. Therefore we must supplement the requirement of an oath with other more practical and easily measured criterion. An identification of the ethical values and governmental ideology held by a candidate will help us elect persons who we can trust to perform their duties consistently with these declared patterns of behavior. This measure of identity must extend beyond the currently used singular measure of membership in an established political party or association.
A series of multiple choice questions would be a start toward improving the present method of trying to understand the objectives of persons who desire to earn the privilege of being a pubic servant. Having answers to these questions on file would allow us to more easily hold successful candidates accountable to their pledged performance standards. The answers to these questions would represent an assessment of the candidate similar to the evaluations that qualify a person to fulfill another professional vocation. This declaration would also serve to provide the same purpose as other professional evaluations, that of ensuring the public that the person is able to perform the vocation in a consistent manner that is safe for those who seek to benefit from their service.
Membership in any political affiliation will not only require advance evaluation based on the content of the prescribed questions but also be determined by the specific answers provided by the candidate. After providing answers to these and other questions a candidate will automatically be assigned to a political party or association that reflects a character consistent with the character confessed by the individual seeking public office. Therefore in elections persons voting will have an improved method of selecting the individual that will best represent their own principles and preferences.
The questionnaire might include but not be limited to these inquiries:
Which of the following statements defines your objective for seeking a public office:
a. Promote policies that serve to benefit a certain segment of the population
b. Promote policies that serve to benefit wealthy and powerful persons
c. Promote policies that serve to benefit persons in my district
d. Promote policies that serve the entire population regardless of class distinction
Which of the following statements reflects your relational preference:
a. I prefer to be in the company of persons who look and sound like me
b. I am comfortable being in the company of persons who have the same interests as me
c. I am comfortable welcoming into my presence persons who believe the same things I believe
d. I am comfortable with everyone receiving the same benefits as I enjoy regardless of their history
Which of the following statements represents a behavioral standard you will adopt:
a. I promise to be prejudiced toward persons who are in a different culture than me
b. I promise to work to advance persons who can benefit my career aspirations
c. I promise to advance policies that maintain the status quo
d. I promise to promote policies that will eliminate inequality in all aspects of human existence
Which of the following statements explains how persons who deviate from their declarations should be disciplined:
a. They should be excused and allowed to continue
b. They should remain in office until their term of service has ended and let voters decide their future
c. They should be placed on probation and limited in their influence
d. They should be removed from office immediately and prevented from ever serving in public office again
Adopting these minimal improvements in the manner in which a candidate is identified and described will help us to set reasonable expectations of how the public servant will perform and to hold them accountable to a professed and recorded pattern of behavior as well as to discipline them when a more obvious deviation occurs.
At the least it will enable us to better distinguish the grown-ups from the adolescent players.