Tucson Opinion: If politicians were plumbers...

Several years ago, while arguing with a friend about the merits of term limits, he described his voting philosophy as follows: Whenever possible, I vote for incumbents who have done a good job. He went on to explain that if politics was a profession, like nursing or plumbing, then you would want to hire competent practitioners who have demonstrated they can do the job.

When asked what makes a good politician, he replied: someone who is honest, someone who listens, someone who knows more about the issues than I do, someone who respects the law, and someone who is willing to compromise.

Though I never understood my own voting behavior in those terms, in some ways that is an accurate description.

My default position has always been to vote Democratic, primarily because the Republicans, at least in my lifetime, have tolerated racists and racism in their party.

The only way I can figure to deal with racism in a society that values free speech as highly as the U.S. does, is to make sure that racists, racist speech, and racist policies never gain public credence. That takes constant vigilance. And, in my opinion, it means not tolerating racists in your own political party, even if it means losing votes.

But that was my default position. I have voted for Republicans in the past —all incumbents, all willing to speak out against racism, and all willing to buck their national party when their conscience or constituencies demanded it. People like Mark Hatfield, John McCain and a couple of Republican state representatives from Southern Arizona who had the courage to buck the state party and actually vote to support public education.

I didn’t vote for Jeff Flake the first time around because I disagree with him on most issues, but I might have voted for him had he run for reelection simply because he exemplified the qualities of a good politician.

Which brings us to the present. A time when extremists in both parties get more press than the politicians in the middle trying to negotiate with integrity, when there is so much misinformation in the public marketplace that trusting your “own” sources is actually a philosophically defensible choice.

There are many structural solutions proposed by varying factions of the political class: term limits, rank choice voting, doing away with the electoral college. All worthy ideas. But unfortunately, these issues don’t resonate with most voters. And they may not lead to the change we hope to see, which I define as a more representative government that’s actually capable of responding to the civic needs of society.

To get there we must elect different people, and to do that we must openly value a different skill set. If we viewed politicians the same way we viewed plumbers, the first thing we’d ask is whether they were competent.

Instead of seeking candidates who share our personal values, maybe we should place more value on their political skills.

Sadly, given the stakes of the upcoming November election, given that we only have a binary choice, given the moral and intellectual corruption of our current President and the complicity of 99% of the politicians in his party, I will vote straight Democratic. At least this time around. But the minute this election is over, I’ll start looking for Republican candidates I can vote for next time. People who are honest, people who listen, people who respect the law, and people who are willing to compromise. And I’ll evaluate Democrats by how well they meet these same criteria.