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Good Politician
June 18th, 2008I’m optimistic for Romania.
As they emerge from their past association with the Soviets, the Romanians are experimenting with democracy, which in modern times is a bit of an experiment in and of itself. Unhindered by convention, Romanians test various aspects of politics and government that have escaped notice in the U.S., U.K. and other areas of political calcification. Our friends in Romania have stumbled upon a solution to a persistent problem with democracy, which is how to trust the people you elect to office.
They are now electing dead people.
Neculai Ivascu had the good grace to die the moment voting began, which saved the people of his village the eventual necessity of killing him. Rigamortis is no barrier to running, and he beat his opponent who suffers from being alive. Ivascu’s expiration was a campaign promise that the people knew he would keep, and so them elected him.
This was no fluke. People of his village knew that Neculai was necrotic. After all, how long does it take for such news to reach all corners of a Romanian village? A Neculai voter said “I know he died, but I don’t want change.”
Here in America we have the opposite problem. Our dead people vote, most often for Democrats. Since even the Democrats have not figured out how to tax the dead, deceased voters have fewer fears in electing Dems, and perhaps they have faint hope that the socialized medicine promised by Obama will eventually provide resurrection benefits.
Where the Romanians have gone horribly right is that they now have history’s first honest elected official. Neculai Ivascu is a man who can be trusted to keep his word for he is no longer speaking. He can be trusted to do nothing aside from decompose.
We should hope for the same from our elected officials.
