After Trump defeated Hillary in 2016 many people fell into a spiral of negativity and despair. All around the world we experienced a global philosophical crisis as we saw an autocrat take power in a powerful global example of democracy. In a crisis, many expect that someone would stop the evil that the autocrats represent, in despair, many expect miracles to happen, for a “messiah” to appear. I am Venezuelan by birth, I have witnessed at least five messiahs trying to bring down the South American dictatorship and fail. These were “career politician” types of messiahs that raised too much hope, delivered poor results, and left millions disengaged and hating the word “politics”.
On January 7th, 2018, Oprah Winfrey was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes. She gave a wonderful speech highlighting how much representation matters and the power of the media to fight for democracy. Naturally, many outlets and even political commentators started to promote the idea of Oprah running in 2020 against Trump.
I recall then, many of my friends posting about the speech, my Facebook newsfeed was full of comments praising her. I particularly remember thinking: “if she decides to run, I just hope she gets surrounded by a competent team and that puts on the work to take this seriously.” I can just imagine the debates if all in the audience would find some fun gift under their sits!
(Photo: Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
One day after Oprah’s speech, I was at the tram on my way to my home. While scrolling on my newsfeed and got shocked by one of the posts of a local young candidate on the 2018 local elections in Hungary. His post phrased something on these lines:
“We do not need more celebrities in politics, we need more career politicians doing the job of representation.”
I have one too many problems with the post I am referring to. First of all, this young man was not even 30 and he never got to work on a full-time job from 9 to 5. I have seen young leaders excelling at the work of representation, as long as there is a record of community management and engagement. A speech does not make a good representative, the work with the community does. This gentleman was fresh from University and he often voiced out that he studied to become a “career politician.” I have only bad examples coming to my mind with people identifying themselves as “career politicians.” I also have many good examples coming to my head of fresh graduates from social and political science that used their knowledge to go back to their communities and engage others. Those humble enough to become first community organizers and social champions do not often call themselves “career politicians.”
Second of all, the tone of this young man was overly elitist and implied that only “career politicians” should engage in the job of representation. Here, I recall the words of a mentor: “if you want to do politics, remember that politics is a duty of all, not a privilege of those of us with a university title, empower, do not exclude.” I fully agree that maybe Oprah would have not been my first choice for a candidate, yet we have seen successful influencing figures, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and philanthropists excelling in public office.
My third issue with this post was the idea behind what makes a “career politician.” Especially as the author was fresh from university and never held office before. I have been working with movements for around 3 years now, and I have met many who did not hold office and still would excel in being good representatives. These are community leaders, organizers, activists, and they have put on the work to walk the road and empower others. The understanding of the post author seemed to imply that a career politician is made by holding a university degree, by a theatrical speech, by planting a tree and taking a picture of it for social media likes.
(A young Viktor Orbán with a young Gábor Fodor in 1993 remind us of the risks of getting elected at a young age without working previously in other fields and not having to do community organising.)
History has taught us that those who join public office young without any real experience on the field are the ones destined to become poorly performing representatives. Those young people only approach their communities when they need to be reelected and rely on the popularity of their parties to attract voters. Many times these “career politicians” do not put on the work with their communities. Those who call themselves “career politicians” at such a young age and without a track record of work are a risk to the public office because they only get to know “power.” Sadly, those who know nothing else than the power are dangerous when elected, those are the ones that fear losing power. If one only knows power, then one does anything to retain it, one does not conceive life without it.
Instead, real social and political leaders are those who would not see politics as a career of few. They work to get as many to participate and to engage with their local constituencies to find local solutions. I have met so many representatives with many years in office that are excellent in keeping engaged with their local constituencies, they are real leaders and champions of social interest.
I understand that not everybody is suitable for public office. Likewise, I believe we are all creators, but not everybody would be able to produce masterpieces of art. Yet, representation implies the decentralization of politics and the inclusion of community input. For example, Door door campaigns are not only about personal data collection, those are exercises to engage and listen to the people.
Organisations fighting for change and also traditional parties have the chance to rethink the concept of “career politicians.” Defending the idea of “career politicians” is not sustainable. Is not personally sustainable as it hurts the ones that only know “politics” once they are out of office. Is not sustainable either for the base of support of the organisations as the concept of “career politicians” is not inclusive in itself and cuts the enthusiasm of pro-active supporters. Lastly, is not sustainable for those working in operational roles in social and political organisations nor for the public administration. The one who labels himself as a “career politician” will struggle to understand operational processes, he will only expect to be served because his ego entitles him.
I am however optimistic, I do see on the road more organisations fighting the concept of “career politicians.” Also, I see more effort on organisations to establish personal development units to help to make those in political roles more aware of their egos. I also see a more entrepreneurial spirit among those retiring from public office to join the civic sector, academia and even to pursue entrepreneurial ventures.
After 3 years of me being outraged by the Facebook post I mentioned earlier, I am even more opinionated about those who label themselves “career politicians.”
But instead of complaining, I remain committed to working with organisations to fight this thinking, and help those with big egos to remember that politics and representation is an inclusive path, is about people, not about oneself.
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