NATIONAL -- The term "career politician" has a negative connotation to it. It is often used on the campaign trail to cast a negative light on an incumbent. Sometimes, it works, and sometimes it doesn't. The accusation against lawmakers referred to as the "establishment" has reshaped Congress in a major way, and big names like former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor have lost their seats.
However, Is being a career politician really a bad thing?
The "establishment" is often composed of people who come from a certain background, were brought up a certain way, received a similar education, and have spent most of their lives in politics, ascending from local office, to state office, to federal office. We might think of these people as part of a "political class."
Today, there is considerable media hype nationally about the 2016 elections and the potential presidential candidates. Since Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton are potential presidential candidates, this raises the question of having another person from one of these political families in the White House again.
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Jeb Bush has been in politics since the late 80s. He served as Florida's secretary of commerce and was the state's governor from 1999 to 2007. His brother, George W. Bush, was the 43rd president, and his father, George H.W. Bush, was the 41st president. His son, George P. Bush, was elected general land commissioner in Texas in 2014, and is expected to have a big future in Texas politics.
Hillary Clinton served as first lady from 1993 to 2001 during her husband's administration. Her husband, Bill Clinton, was the 42nd President of the United States. From 2001 to 2009, Hillary served as a U.S. senator from New York, and served as secretary of state under the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013.
The Bush family and the Clintons are, without a doubt, part of the professional political class. They have even established what the media often calls "political dynasties."
Why do Americans keep re-electing professional politicians? One reason is these politicians have the financial and political clout that fresh new candidates don't. Unfortunately, money has become the single most important factor in getting elected to national offices. Candidates in the professional political class are in a much better position to raise large sums of money to get re-elected.
Professional politicians do not always give the American people the best results. We might have seen that 50 or 60 years ago, but not today. In recent years, we have seen numerous scandals and reports of corruption coming from the professional political class who run our government at the national level. This includes bureaucrats or executive managers who manage large government agencies as well.We have a negative political climate in America today. We have candidates from the two major political parties running for Congress or the White House who can be bought by political action committees. Quite often, large corporations make up the core of these political action committees and are willing to buy candidates and their campaigns.
The Supreme Court's decision in the 2010 Citizens United case allowed this corrupt practice to continue.
Members of the political establishment -- Republican and Democratic -- have led to the lowest approval ratings for the U.S. Congress in American history. They have created the political gridlock in Congress which has earned them the name, "Do Nothing Congress." The good results from the political professional class have been missing in Washington, D.C. for quite some time.
The professional political class is not providing the representative government that Americans deserve. Americans need to prevent politicians who only represent special interest groups from getting re-elected term after term.
We need open primaries nationwide to avoid this scenario. If we have open primaries, then we will hopefully see qualified independent and third-party candidates who can represent their communities and states in an appropriate manner.
If American voters want representative government, the bottom line is that we need to start by overturning Citizens United. Let's eliminate the big corporate political action committees and the professional political class from stealing our freedom and our national government.