The following is a response to Rep. Claire Snyder-Hall’s recent commentary in this newspaper.
Her argument seems old and very tired to this reader. The fact that Delaware General Assembly is currently populated with politicians younger than the nation’s Congress confuses the actual subject, and it might even be deduced that her argument is potentially self-serving.
The reality is that the contrary argument is actually about career politicians. Our country was founded on the premise of citizen legislators. The idea behind that was that those in office would be well connected with living as a non-politician, and it seems obvious that after the first 15 to 20 years (perhaps even less), no legislator remains connected with being a non-politician.
All politicians complain that they have to raise funds almost immediately after winning an election. Curiously, they themselves reside in the only position that might be able to fix that problem. I’m not really sure why they don’t, but maybe that has something to do with the probability that they don’t really want to fix the problem. Can they then explain why, with very few exceptions, they exit their positions with a level of wealth uncommon in this country?
No, we’re sorry, Ms. Snyder-Hall, many of us are quite tired of career politicians. Liking public service is way too familiar a dodge to allow for career politicians to feed at the trough. Give me politicians that get into the job kicking and screaming but having a purpose and then wanting to get back to the real world. Those are citizen legislators.
You say you want to do public service? Join a branch of the military, be a police officer. Otherwise, two terms and out; that should do it.
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