12-16-2005, 10:57 PM
Well, there are a couple problems with all that.
First, congress is *not* the place to look for the movers and shakers of the USA. That's the house where at least remotely ordinary people do get elected on a regular basis. Certainly, it's not without millionaires, but it's not a rich-person's club.
The problems come higher up, in the Senate or in the White House itself. There, it's not that you have to be rich. Plenty aren't, or at least didn't start that way. Clinton was as poor as they come, and yet got the top spot.
What you have to be is *elite*. You need the connections. Money can buy you those connections, but it can't buy you popularity. Charisma is the best way, but not everyone has it. Brains works some of the time, although not often enough. Backstabbing will get you far, but not usually to the very top (Exception: Nixon). Above all, you need ambition, the kind of ambition that distorts your ethical view of the world, the kind that drives you to do stupid things for power.
But that's what keeps the ordinary person out of Washington, this perpetually revolving club of the power elite. Money is just one part of the game.
I doubt other countries are too much different. It's just that the stakes are lower, so people don't make the evil-but-convenient plays as often.
-Jester
First, congress is *not* the place to look for the movers and shakers of the USA. That's the house where at least remotely ordinary people do get elected on a regular basis. Certainly, it's not without millionaires, but it's not a rich-person's club.
The problems come higher up, in the Senate or in the White House itself. There, it's not that you have to be rich. Plenty aren't, or at least didn't start that way. Clinton was as poor as they come, and yet got the top spot.
What you have to be is *elite*. You need the connections. Money can buy you those connections, but it can't buy you popularity. Charisma is the best way, but not everyone has it. Brains works some of the time, although not often enough. Backstabbing will get you far, but not usually to the very top (Exception: Nixon). Above all, you need ambition, the kind of ambition that distorts your ethical view of the world, the kind that drives you to do stupid things for power.
But that's what keeps the ordinary person out of Washington, this perpetually revolving club of the power elite. Money is just one part of the game.
I doubt other countries are too much different. It's just that the stakes are lower, so people don't make the evil-but-convenient plays as often.
-Jester