Governmental Conflict Resolution HD

Yet again, I'm inspired to write about an issue that was raised by the best damn news team on TV. It centers on Government and the people working to govern. I suggest that the purpose of government is, at it's root, to solve problems. Most people of all political stripes will agree that a government is supposed to work to solve the issues as a collective that we as individuals can not. Many would go farther to say that a government is meant to ensure its citizens are afforded the opportunity to succeed in life by providing education and a social safety net etc.. I personally feel these two mission statements, if you will, for government are pretty fair and reasonable. And if it were true that politicians, our venerable representatives in government, saw these two goals as their true guiding principles, I think we might end up with a pretty damn good government.

Here's the problem that the best damn news team on TV brought up the other day: politicians aren't in government to find solutions. Wyatt Cenac likened American politics to pro-wrestling in that conflict keeps people interested and thereby their money rolling in... Of course politics in many countries is definitely a question of where the money is, but I'd like to ask another question about motivations. What is the litmus test for politicians? Election and reelection, right? And how does a politician achieve that? It's all about how they deal with problems/issues that are important to their constituents who then approve or disapprove of their representative's job at the polls. Now here's the crux: If there's something that you as a politician can 'work on' that is viewed favourably by your electorate then how much real incentive is there to actually SOLVE anything? If politicians ACTUALLY spent their days working on finding honest solutions to the issues facing their public instead of perpetuating them by choosing conflict mitigation over conflict resolution, we MIGHT just end up with a government that works... it'd be boring, and people would likely complain that politicians don't do much, but then again, that's not really any different than our current state of affairs...

Canadians are a little better off than our southern neighbours in that the Canadian media doesn't hyper-sensationalize politicians and their issues, but that doesn't address the incentive deficit for politicians to actually solve problems by truly listening to conflicting interests, being open to alternative solutions, and being willing to compromise. I'd love to see politicians in question period strapped with those spray collars used for training pets, so that every time they start grandstanding or being counterproductive they get a solid shot of eau d'rotten egg up the nose...

I guess I've got no real solution for this issue... but this rant sounded good. Maybe I'll go in to politics.