[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Barnet Flame

Obama seems to me to be the last inspiring candidate to lead a party in either the US, Canada and the UK.

Looking around at not just the leaders of our countries, but the candidates to potentially lead the countries, there is nothing.

Who would want the job?

Why would anyone want to be a politician? The pay isn’t great if you stay honest; the hours are long; the media attention you face can be brutal; your chances of getting anything done are slight unless you get to the very top. I should know. I was a politician in my native Canada for six years, and I have the scars to prove it. Although Americans think we are a kinder, gentler version of them, the fact is that our politics is just as nasty and partisan, and, after our Parliament Hill was occupied for three weeks by disgruntled truckers, sometimes just as wildly unpredictable. Social media has made it worse. When I used to meet constituents in the flesh, they were civil even if they weren’t ever going to vote for me, but digital disinhibition turns people into vipers. What some of my fellow citizens thought fit to say about me, and my opponents too, doesn’t bear repeating—and women have it much worse. Sigrid Kaag recently resigned as the leader of a Dutch liberal party, citing the “hate, intimidation and threats.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/ar...review/675244/