Parents vs. Elected Officials

Next in our series exploring what's wrong with the status quo is a look at elected officials and parents.  One might assume that parents and political leaders have a great deal in common, but one might be wrong.  Parents and elected officials have very little in common, beyond the superficial similarities of their duties.

A parent is someone who is tasked with governing a family.  Parents choose the number and genetic makeup of their constituents, and in return for providing safety tend to expect absolute loyalty.  Some parents even expect their constituents to perform illegal acts to protect them or further their interests.  If parents' constituents rise up in rebellion against the tyranny of their parents, they are generally incarcerated in their room or their travel privileges rescinded.  Society tolerates this tyranny as parents are assumed to have superior knowledge and experience, and they are assumed to have the interests of their constituents at heart.  If they don't, society generally takes their constituents away and integrates them into other groups.

An elected official is generally tasked with the proper governance of a group of people.  The elected officials choose who they want to be their constituents, but they rely on their constituents to choose them back.  This is the first major difference between parents and elected officials.  In order to be elected, the official must endear himself or herself to the constituents by making empty promises or convincing them that things will be better for them.  Constituents are not expected to be loyal, and if the elected official does something unpopular, the constituents will likely have him or her removed from office.  Elected officials are assumed to have the interests of constituents at heart, but generally they have their own interests at heart and really only have the interests of the constituents in what they say and do publicly.  

The primary difference between these two groups is that parents can and do change their constituents for the better, while elected officials usually have little effect on their constituents' lives.  If society wants to improve, they will need leaders who are more like parents than elected officials.  At the GNU Public Dictatorship we are nothing if not accommodating, which is why we are offering to act like parents to world citizens and not elected officials!