Mercenaries in arms

last post for the night..I promise.

I've been lucky, and this I freely admit, to work for Paul Wellstone and Howard Dean. I've seen politics that elevated discourse, raised hopes, empowered people and inspired future leaders. Apparently that's not good enough. I wonder about the folks I meet who insists that politics is a game, and it's about winning. I met one of these folks earlier this week. I try to argue that politics isn't a game, that it was about 'the improvement of people's lives' that it could be more than just a simple matter of determining outcomes, but that it could change the way that people saw themselves and their government. I guess I have to believe that. It is deadening for me to think that the majority or maybe just plurality of people who do what I do, and do it well think that it's a game. That's its an excuse to get paid for the rush of adrenaline. That they relish being hired guns. That winnning is the only thing, and the process by which that goal is achieved is not justified but rather it's irrelevant. That the only limitation should be legal. And that 'i play in the gray areas, oh yeah, I play in the gray areas, but I try and stay this side of the law.' Clearly a call to higher service.

Oh, and I was told when I said I wouldn't send spies into an opponents office, or tear down signs or imply they were gay or senile or whatever to gain advantage, "don't me so moral and stuff, you have to be more competitive. You'll never win like that" I've never been told that I need to be more competitive, I've never earned that sneer. But until more races are won by the Tim's and Robert's of the world than by the Whouley's...I'll just have to listen to guys like this.

It's hard to think that some of my brothers in arms are just mercenaries.