We Have Forgotten What Real Political Leaders Sound Like
And it’s about time we remembered
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When was the last time you felt excited about the future?
When was the last time you felt like your country was moving in a positive direction? When was the last time you felt as though your country was in the good hands of capable, talented and well-meaning people?
When was the last time you felt that your country was a giant team, working together to create a better world for everybody? When was the last time you felt like you had an important role in society? When was the last time you felt a true sense of pride in belonging to your country?
As a late millennial of 30 years old, I can tell you that I have never felt this way. Not once.
My very first experience of politics was as an 18-year-old during the 2010 UK election. I voted for a party called The Liberal Democrats because they promised to get rid of university tuition fees completely. Being someone who was planning to attend university, this sounded fantastic.
In the end, they won (partially) and ended up in a coalition with the conservatives. Just one year later, instead of getting rid of tuition fees for university students, the government decided to triple them.
The party I voted for not didn’t keep their promise, they also made me pay 3 times as much for university.
My experience of politics and politicians only got worse from there.
I looked across the pond to the United States, the most powerful country in the world, and saw a political system that was deeply corrupt.
Giant corporations were able to freely pay the government to do what they wanted through lobbying. Weapons manufacturers pushed the government towards longer, more drawn-out wars in order to sell more weapons. Big pharma used their billions of dollars to stop the government from changing the corrupt healthcare system.
From a very young age, I quickly learned that politics was filled with corrupt monsters who didn’t have our best interest at heart. It was filled with people who cared about their own self-interest, and didn’t give a damn about the population.
