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This says so much about what's broken in our legislative system: > Six weeks into my legislative career, I was the legislature’s reluctant new expert on mental
by agwa 14y ago
This says so much about what's broken in our legislative system:
> Six weeks into my legislative career, I was the legislature’s reluctant new expert on mental health.
After six weeks, he was not an expert. In nearly all cases, our legislators are not experts in any of the things which they are legislating, yet that never stops them from forming strong opinions and trying to "reform" or "fix" things. On HN, we see this frequently with Internet and technology legislation, but this article shows it's a problem with other areas, too.
- showerst 14y agoI think he was using 'expert' in the sense of 'go-to guy', and maybe a bit ironically.
- mynameishere 14y agoYeah, he was clearly being sarcastic. Sarcasm is generally a bad rhetorical device.
- vacri 14y agoPoliticians are sometimes assigned to roles where they don't know anything on purpose - if they understand the deep issues, they'll be less willing to make funding cuts. I did my honours year at a defense research site, and here in Australia we have two Defense Ministers - the junior is the Minister for Defense Science. While I was there, the junior minister was a total incompetant (Bishop) that knew nothing of her portfolio. When I asked the scientists why they'd give her this job, the above is what they answered with. Later on that year, there were significant funding cuts...