Politicians supposed to be could be left alone to do their own thing, minding their own business, leaving us undisturbed. But no, they reach out to us, the common people, for support and all. That’s the nature of their jobs, especially in democratic states with elections as a means to catapult them to power.
But the people, too, tend to run after them for upward mobility, for jobs, for money, for connections, for power, for influence, and many more. Even if politicians are just staying put in their comfort zones, people keep flocking to their doors for various reasons, hence the building of politician-people relationship that may, if things go right, turn out to be good. But if things turn for the worse, then the outcomes may do harm than good.
You see, too much politicking doubtless harms our country. But there are times when it does something good, and that’s when it brings to the open some politicians’ secrets that, given a good relationship between political rivals, would never be disclosed and would thus remain unresolved.
Our kind of politics cannot therefore be deemed negative all the time, though we have been critical in characterizing the kind of politics that we have. Think of how irregularities would perpetuate if not brought to public attention. Imagine if nothing but darkness engulfs our systems. Configure how much corruption would deepen and proliferate if it remains unchecked.
But who can expose the anomalies best? Is it the media? Well, partly, yes. But the media is only good at documenting what have been exposed. Normally, the most in-depth disclosures are done by those who are driven by the motive to uncover evil practices, in the guise of heroism, albeit designed for political demolition purposes. Here, evil schemes and true colors of people really surface.
As we approach the time when the electorate has to be won to one’s side once again, such probes are getting numerous. Genius politicians have mastered this as an effective tool to undermine their opponents and, at the same time, to win the people’s support. It may be politics at its dirtiest tactic, of course, but it somehow uncovers anomalous activities that people should be vigilant against.
Fortunately, all this aid the people in choosing their leaders. They may not be able to select the perfect ones, but with the information they get from these ruinous revelations, they are likely to find the lesser evil.
That’s what we are for the most part—left with no options but to choose the lesser evil. It may be too simplistic, but it’s the practical thing to do. Why, then, should we opt for something that has been repeatedly proven to be unreliable through time? That would be a risky adventurism, gambling our future for something dangerous.