Whenever I tell people my life goal is to be in public office, I am met with discouragement. People question why I would subject myself to that scrutiny, or why I do not have “higher” aspirations, or if I could be more naïve thinking I could change anything in our government at all?
No, I do not want to have my personal life scraped over the coals, hung out to dry, or any other graphic metaphor. I do not want to put my future family through the rigor and the pressure. I do not want to have to waste time talking about college-age indiscretions to prove that I can handle myself professionally. I do not want that, but it is worth it. It’s worth it because I honestly think I can do good things for our country. My heart bleeds for humanity, my heart aches for our country’s loss of its ideals, my heart is in this work. So yes, I will put myself through that because I really think I can help, and to not try would be substantially worse.
Could I get a more lucrative job? Yes. Could I get a more culturally “impressive” job? Yes. Could I love a field more? No. Could I do more good? No. The problem with expecting our best people to go into the private sphere is that they will. And when you wonder why our two major parties’ options are less than inspiring, it’s because our inspirational people are doing something better. This “job” is important and unless we start treating it this way we’re going to continue to perpetuate this problem. In "The Abolition of Man", C.S. Lewis writes,“In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function… We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” If we keep acting like politicians would have to be crazy to follow that career path, we are going to keep getting crazy politicians.
Maybe I cannot make much change, and maybe I will not be president, but why is it a bad thing that I want to try? We all agree that we need a change in this country, so let’s start prioritizing it. Acting like there is no chance of change is defeatist and sad. Maybe if women and men were faced with encouragement about their aspirations, we would have the strength to make a real difference in our society.
