How many politicians are not scum?

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg cannot, in good conscience be classified as scum, simply due to his impeccable statesmanship in the aftermath of the July 22nd bombing and Utøya massacre.

Edited by ColonelClaypool - April 30 2012 at 08:23

I would say most of the ones you've never heard of are probably okay - they're probably somewhat "normal" and "average" as far as it is possible for someone with the necessary funding to be a politician to be "normal" and "average" to enter into public service with no thought of personal reward or gain, and to do that you have to align yourself to a particular political party which is neither "normal" or "average" unless you really truly believe that one single ideology really can solve all the worlds ails when it demonstrably has failed to do that for decades, if not centuries. But on the face of it the last person I'd trust to be a politician is anyone who actually wanted to be a politician.

Many are decent people doing their best.  The whole "all pols are pure evil" is yet another tired cliche bandied around as truth by too many.  That said, some are pretty poor. 

As much as DC would not like to hear this.........Feces does flow from the top down.

The inside information they are allowed to use to better their ownself is beyond un-ethical. How does someone running for a position that pays $150K a yr for a 4-6 yr stint, walk out a millionaire?

Also, every single member of each party normally endorses their party's candidate for president. The 2 main party's candidates are ALWAYS pieces of poop. If any of these politicians had any intelligence and actually wanted real change, they would endorse independent candidates to bring attention views that aren't backed by corporations. Contrary to what the news tells us, there ARE more than 2 sides to every argument. Anyone with REAL financial backing cannot be trusted. None of them ever bring up 'outside the box' ideas. They stick to what their party tells them or what their backers tell them.

Edited by Smurph - April 30 2012 at 10:10

Vompatti wrote: As far as I know there are no communist politicians in America, so the answer is obviously none.

Smurph wrote: Vompatti wrote: As far as I know there are no communist politicians in America, so the answer is obviously none.   Communism is just a screwed up as capitalism. It assumes that the people in power won't take advantage. THEY ALWAYS TAKE ADVANTAGE. Communism would work amazingly in small groups. It cannot work for entire countries. Socialism is supposedly the pathway to Communism but somehow it never gets there.   Show me an example of communism working without people getting taken advantage of. Unless you can, anything you say to me won't convince me.

Obviously there shouldn't be any people in power. As you said, it would work in small groups, and it would work for entire countries as well if countries were such small groups.

The question says American politicians

I've met 3 or 4 Canadian ones that aren't scum, but that's it

Probably hundreds of them. 

I don't think Dubya was scum.  I do think he had the worst judgment of any president in my lifetime including Richard Nixon and drank at the most inopportune times, but he wasn't scum.