Covid has made it super obvious that our leaders have it all backwards.

If there are two things the pandemic has highlighted for me, it is that the lack of personal and professional accountability is literally a disease in itself, and that our system of political representation is fucking broken..
Humans are selfish by nature, but from the anti-mask protests to the inexcusable behaviour of elected officials and lack of transparency from them, it has been made really clear to me that we have entered into the Golden Age of ME ME ME and POWER POWER POWER.
Don’t get me wrong, I also think that this whole thing has brought out some beautiful philanthropy, spirit of community and willingness to adapt from many people, but like everything in this world lately, the way we have responded personally to this pandemic is as polarized as North and South.
I have been hugely disappointed in my elected representatives and their arrogance, personal conduct and lack of direct honesty. It got me thinking: Are they all just a bunch of total assholes who walk around with their dicks in their hand try to remind you how important they are? Are they reminding us that they hold all the cards and the rest of us are just minions, here to just eat shit while they do whatever they want? OR are they just trying to hide their own ineptitudes and shortcomings by putting up this brave front that includes verbally abusing media and constituents and trying to avoid answering questions by discrediting the questioner?
Honestly, I think it’s all of those things.
We have a problem here. The people in charge have it all backwards.
The spirit of democracy is that communities vote to have someone represent them, to be their voice, to listen. We are supposed to elect people to represent our unique needs and advocate for us. We are supposed to elect people that will hear us, and empathize, and try to be fair. We have a right to expect honesty, transparency, and the ability to account for mistakes openly. We expect mutual respect and an ability to compromise what they might personally believe because they were elected to represent the WHOLE community, not their own interests.
Unfortunately, it just isn’t working that way.
What appears to be happening, is that the political party’s are representing THEIR actions and policies to US. They make decisions that are based on their values and desires, and then spend their time justifying them to US. They break their own rules and won’t apologize, account or even acknowledge them. They block our ability to communicate with them. They try to discredit the people who ask tough questions because they either don’t have the answers and are to proud to admit it, or simply don’t have the integrity to deal in truths.
No wonder they are so pissed off all the time. Constantly trying to justify things that aren’t justifyable is bloody exhausting.
If we truly want to fix this, we need to get back to the spirit of what democracy is about. Level the playing field, so that anyone selected as a candidate gets funded equally to campaign. Give grassroots people and communities equal power and opportunity to best represent what their community actually needs.
Abolish the party system.
Have separate votes for specific cabinet portfolios such as Health, Education, Justice, Arts, that would create an opportunity for specialists in those fields to spearhead departments that are based on expertise and who have a hot fucking clue what they are in charge of. Create a Cabinet that isn’t rooted in maintaining party lines, but in well informed humans having to discuss and to compromise and learn from each other in an effort to actually solve a few things in our society.
WHAT IF, this all became less about power and money and actually became a group of leaders who were finally leading people and inspiring them as they were meant to be doing, rather than trying to manage things according to their priorities and “ruling” us?
WHAT IF we could make this better?
WHAT IF, indeed.