Why are politicians so evil

I think politicians are, by and large,
evil people. When I shared my
verdict with a journalist friend, he
strongly objected. He rightly
pointed out that he’s had ample
personal interaction with
politicians. In his experience,
politicians of both parties generally
want to do the right thing.
Whatever their intellectual errors,
their virtue is intact. My mental
image of villainous politicians is at
odds with the facts.
I’m happy to grant that my journalist
friend’s first-hand experience with
politicians far exceeds my own. But
I’m confident that if I saw what he
saw, my doleful verdict would stay
the same. Why? Because my
standards of moral conduct are
much higher than his, in two main
ways.
First, virtuous people can’t just
conform to the expectations of their
society. Everyone has at least a
modest moral obligation to perform
“ due diligence” – to investigate
whether their society’s expectations
are immoral. And whenever their
society fails to measure up, virtuous
people spurn social expectations
and do the morally right thing.
Second, anyone in a position of
political power has a greatly
elevated moral obligation to
perform this due diligence. Yes,
with great power comes great
responsibility . If you’re in a
position to pass or enforce laws,
lives and freedom are in your hands.
Common decency requires you to act
with extreme moral trepidation at
all times, ever mindful of the
possibility that you’re trampling the
rights of the morally innocent.
Note: Neither of these principles
claims that politicians have to share
my libertarian philosophy in order
to be decent human beings. They’re
procedural. They require every
human being to seek out and
seriously consider the main moral
critiques of the status quo. And they
enjoin politicians to make this
intellectual hygiene their top
priority. Until they calmly recuse
themselves from their society and
energetically weigh a wide range of
moral arguments, they have no
business lifting a political finger.
At this point, the iniquity of
practicing politicians should be
clear. How much time and mental
energy does the average politician
pour into moral due diligence? A
few hours of year seems like a high
estimate. They don’t just fall a tad
short of their moral obligations.
They’re too busy passing laws and
giving orders to face the possibility
that they’re wielding power
illegitimately.
Such negligence is scarcely
surprising. After all, what’s in it for
the politicians? Political systems
reward them for seeming good by
conventional standards. If we’re
lucky, this spurs leaders to do what
most people consider good. More
likely, it spurs leaders to spin
control – packaging even their
worst actions in conventional moral
garb. If there’s a political system
that affirmatively rewards politicians
for conscientiously questioning
mainstream moral standards, I’ve
never heard of it. Politicians have no
excuses for their shameful behavior,
but like almost all wrong-doers, they
have reasons.
Admittedly, if it turned out that our
society’s conventional moral
standards were basically right, our
politicians’ vice would be harmless.
That’s a much bigger question. But
whatever the whole truth about
morality might be, politicians –
including the Americans politicians
my journalist friend defends – are
almost invariably guilty of pervasive
gross moral negligence. Politicians,
repent!
How do you chek