The Corrupt Politician

Today, it is hard to have a conversation about politics without negative feelings coming about. This makes it difficult for politicians to gain any kind of public favor. Today’s society has labeled politicians as corrupt scumbags with nobody’s interest except their own. Political cartoons such as this one demonstrate in a somewhat humorous way the single story of politicians being criminals, crooks and villains. In fact, this cartoon implies that the government is no better than organized crime.

Similarly, memes take a humorous approach to the single story as well. The above meme suggests that a politician is more of a psychotic criminal than the Joker. This is sending the message that we need to imprison our leaders before taking care of the criminals on the street. While there is no doubt that there are indeed politicians who are just as guilty of crimes as convicts, suggesting that they are “psychotic criminals” is perhaps a dangerous exaggeration.

Furthermore, there are news stories about the faults of politicians everywhere you look. Whether they are having an affair or laundering money, the media never fails

to portray them in a negative light. While the politcians guilty of crimes should not be able to get away without punishment, there are also many posiive attributes and proceedings that news doesn’t seem to care about. There is an obvious lobsidedness to media about politicians.

Movies, as well, seem to portray politicians as corrupt. Popular movies such as The Hunger Games and even the Harry Potter series feature corrupt governments. This isn’t something found only in newer

movies either. The 1939 film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” is all about corrupt politicians. These portrayals heavily add to the stereotype of politicians being greedy, selfish and crooked. While we are watching movies or television shows, it is an opportunity to escape present cares, and for them to show politicians in such a negative light heavily reinforces the single story. Even when our minds are in a ficticious world, politicians are still the same.

Because of the single story told about corrupt politicians, society is being conditioned to think that all politicians are bad. This is detrimental because it causes us to hate the people who are in control of this country. We automatically assume that politicians are out to get us and don’t care about our needs or interests. With this being the popular mentality of our country, we seem to have already accepted our fate as being controlled by a bunch of bad guys. Instead of  looking for positive qualities about politicians, even locally, we automatically write them off as parasitic monsters.  Society begs for a change in government, but that cannot happen without first changing the single story told about politicians.