Politicians have a choice to act morally and with individual conscience; however, it is rare. Caught as they are in-between the gnashing teeth of party discipline, media discipline, populism, and maybe pathological desires for power. Fareed Zakaria blamed too much democracy for that in his book Future of Freedom. Politicians could not act morally or as executive/legislative specialists as they were hemmed in by the demand to be re-elected. Ezra Klein points a finger at the mass media.
This gaffe-hunting makes up a substantial slice of contemporary campaign journalism. It is certainly the part that candidates fear most. And it is poisonous to our polity. You often hear that the media are too liberal or too conservative, too corporate or too effete. But to politicians, they are something else altogether: too trivializing and too intent on ferreting out moments of humiliation. They rob politicians of their ability to campaign in an honorable or spontaneous way.Does it? Much political blood is split in ensuring that the whole party or department is 'on-message'; saturating the media with the constant drum of one simple visual or sound bite. Is that the media's fault? I doubt it. As politicians extend that now into the civil or public service who have become little more than the political arms of the executive. Same with the supposed apolitical department such as the military. They have been little more than blatant political arms. Cosgrove during the 'children overboard' affair being a good example. In comparison Patreaus has succeeding managing himself in as apolitical a manner as possible. What of Zakaria's claim that too much democracy is the cause? A simple response is how about the politicians do their goddamn job they were elected to do. Is it democracy's fault that parties and political leaders govern poorly? Choice ultimately is limited for most voters. Increasing liberty requires increasing morality for the purpose of individual self-governance. Deniehy argued that man's moral improvement makes this possible and that greater liberty actually drives greater moral expression. Sometimes, however, it is easy to think our politicians are not living up to that moral promise.
