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While it is probably a pleasant thought to repeat the mythical stories of yeoman farmers serving the legislative office in the distant past, these stories are n
by evgen 10y ago
While it is probably a pleasant thought to repeat the mythical stories of yeoman farmers serving the legislative office in the distant past, these stories are nothing more than myth. A 'career politician' is someone who has dedicated themselves to a profession that you may denigrate, but which is just as complicated and demanding as any other high-profile job.
It is quite possible that a 'career academic' like Dr. Eisen could succeed at the job since the role of most PIs in a top lab is bureaucratic paperwork and academic politics, but in most cases when you throw unqualified outsiders into these sort of political positions what you end up with is a government run by the unelected senior staff of the political figureheads that people are voting for.
- mindcrime 10y agoRegardless of what happened in the past, I consider career politicians to be bad idea in general. And in either case, I disagree with the premise that one most be an experienced politician to serve in a meaningful way in the Senate. IIRC, both Rand Paul and Elizabeth Warren joined the Senate without having held elected office before. And there have certainly been others. Anyway, if the most recent election proved anything, it's that the people are willing to vote for "outsiders", so Eisen may just have a shot. What would happen if he's elected is, of course, hard to predict.
- evgen 10y agoAs a lawyer and law professor Elizabeth Warren had some idea how the legal process worked and has been reasonably effective at crafting law and regulatory policy. As an ophthalmologist who happened to have a relatively famous political father Rand Paul had no idea how to craft effective law and it shows. TBH you would have been better going with Al Franken as an 'outsider' with no effective experience who seems to be getting some things done.
- mindcrime 10y agoBy and large I don't want Senators (or House reps, etc.) who "get things done". The more they do, the worse off we are in general. I want more Ron Paul types who vote "no" on everything. It's just too bad that Rand isn't as principled as his father.