It Matters Little What Politicians Say; it's What They Do That Counts!

One of the biggest complaints I hear about government, politicians and bureaucrats is that their words present the message that we (the electorate) want to hear, but have little to do with the actions the ultimately take.

The focus of many politicians is on reelection starting at the moment they complete their victory speech and continuing either to another victory speech or a concession speech when they lose.

That means that there is little focus on the “people’s business”, which is prioritized lower than the requirements to raise money for their reelection and the corresponding pandering to special interest groups and lobbyists.

I came across this article in the Columbus paper about the Governor’s State of the State speech and the first couple lines pretty well explain how a lot of Americans view politics and politicians these days.

If you like Republican Gov. John Kasich, you liked his Steubenville State of the State speech.  If you don’t like him, you didn’t.

And if you’re a normal Ohioan, hoping payday comes before a check bounces, you had better things to think about.

This is a valid explanation of how most voters are focused these days.  You can replace “Governor Kasich” with any politician, replace state of the state speech with the SOTU speech or some other political address and replace “Ohioan” with Kansan, Virginian or whatever and the message remains the same.

Today’s Ohioans (Americans) know the rest of the story.   And it’s not just a matter of Democrats vs. Republicans, or Wall Street vs. Main Street.   What’s also at issue is the perversion of politics from bread-and-butter to ratings-and-glitz.

Sadly professional politicians have largely replaced public servants and only recently have people begun to wake up and realize that they need to be more involved in the process or be steamrolled by it.  We are starting to watch what politicians do more than what they say.

The political theater is losing its appeal in Ohio (and throughout the country).  The author sums this up very well in the article when he says --

So what’s sometimes “debated” in a Steubenville or a Youngstown or inner-ring Cleveland or the Miami Valley’s cities is same-old, same-old: “Democrats-bad, Republicans-good,” or “Democrats-good, Republicans-bad,” life as a Browns-Steelers or Browns-Bengals game rather than a high-stakes proposition about the lives and futures of ordinary voters.

Some Ohioans get their Dockers in a bunch when Kasich, as he tends to do, gets too loose, or when Barack Obama sounds like he’s talking down to an audience. But the real measure, as people in steel and coal towns know, isn’t what a politician says, or how it’s said — but what gets done .

This story is obviously mainly about politics in Ohio, but I find the points it makes quite relevant to the national scene as well.

Your comments, counter points and remarks are welcome and appreciated.