# Why do politicians waste so much time on stupid non-issues? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 9, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928 "2016-06-09T16:45:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/21 "2016-06-10T11:12:28Z")
> [@davida03801](#): > > Well, **boffking** , I grew up in Northern New England in a small town and live in a neighboring state. > > I know one of Lepage’s current themes is to lower the cost of energy in Maine. He wants to bring in more pipelines to upgrade the Nat Gas capacity while many oppose him and want to rely on alternative energy sources. Is that a stupid non-issue ? The natural gas LePage is talking about will be used for generating electricity, so it probably won’t lower consumer gas prices. Do you have gas heat now? Because his proposal won’t increase the gas infrastructure to the consumer. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/22 "2016-06-10T12:08:42Z")
> [@davida03801](#): > > Well, **boffking** , I grew up in Northern New England in a small town and live in a neighboring state. > > I know one of Lepage’s current themes is to lower the cost of energy in Maine. He wants to bring in more pipelines to upgrade the Nat Gas capacity while many oppose him and want to rely on alternative energy sources. Is that a stupid non-issue ? > > If your one of the beautiful people along the coast I am sure you’re against it. After all you can afford the energy you need, it does not pinch your budget, it doesn’t affect your job, and certainly you want to feel good about yourself supporting environmental causes. > > On the other hand you working in the interior where the winters are tough, and paying the fuel bill is a major concern perhaps it is much more of an important issue. Up there paying the fuel bill is a much higher % of your yearly budget. Bringing the price down for fuel would be welcomed. Also if you work in a factory and they have lower fuel costs they might stay around longer and you get to be keeping your job and not have that worry. > > Seems to me that Lepage, for all his faults, is tackling an important issue, and tackling an issue that hits the little guy a lot harder than the rest of you think. In this case he has the interest of the average family in his mind more than you are willing to admit. I’m in favor of this. But you have to admit Lepage doesn’t have much to do with it. Look up Unitil, Iberdrola, or Summit. The private companies that are working hard to expand natural gas service. Not because Lepage made them, but to expand their customer base. Why should government take all the credit for private industry’s work? ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/23 "2016-06-10T13:02:27Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > I’m in favor of this. But you have to admit Lepage doesn’t have much to do with it. Look up Unitil, Iberdrola, or Summit. The private companies that are working hard to expand natural gas service. Not because Lepage made them, but to expand their customer base. Why should government take all the credit for private industry’s work? I commented on that since listening to NPR earlier this week I caught some listening time in which he was catching a lot of heat for it. A lot. Honestly do not know the names, or players up in politics up there. Sounded like the environmental lobby just totally disgusted by the proposal and his promoting it. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/24 "2016-06-15T09:26:14Z")
Well, after Sunday morning, I think the OP has an answer now. The world does not begin and end on economic issues, and social issues are not irrelevancies that everyone can just ignore. For some people, they’re a literal matter of life and death. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/25 "2016-07-04T22:25:56Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > I don’t want to hear Trump’s racism (or Lepage’s!) anymore. I don’t want to hear about ISIS, bathroom laws, or how many post offices Hillary and Bernie renamed, or any of the other red herrings politicians put out. When are we going to focus on the real issues our country is facing, and stop wasting time with stupid bullshit? > Fixing things like education and infrastructure might not be flashy and exciting, but they are a politician’s job. The reason they talk about those things is they believe other voters care about them, even if you don’t. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2016, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/26 "2016-07-04T23:37:21Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > I don’t want to hear Trump’s racism (or Lepage’s!) anymore. I don’t want to hear about ISIS, bathroom laws, or how many post offices Hillary and Bernie renamed, or any of the other red herrings politicians put out. When are we going to focus on the real issues our country is facing, and stop wasting time with stupid bullshit? > Fixing things like education and infrastructure might not be flashy and exciting, but they are a politician’s job. Education-state issue Infrastructure-Congressional issue One of our problems is that few people really know what politicians should be talking about, which is why they talk about what we want to hear about. The unsexy thing that a serious Presidential candidate would focus on is fixing the VA, making sure that federal employees carry out their jobs in a non-partisan manner, improving management practices throughout the federal government, and create systems that ensure accountability rather than systems that ensure that no one is ever responsible when something goes wrong. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/27 "2016-07-05T02:03:25Z")
Another thing I don’t like about our political system is we focus too much on blame, not on fixing things. Everyone was calling for the governor of Michigan and the mayor of Flint to be arrested after the water crisis. The problem is, the water won’t get cleaner by virtue of these men being behind bars. The water picked up lead from the pipes. It will continue to that as long as the lead pipes are there, and the water is being drawn from the river. My response to that is to replace the pipes, and improve the treatment systems. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/28 "2016-07-05T10:35:41Z")
There has to be accountability though. If anything, the government does do one thing well: they find out what went wrong, they make recommendations to prevent such occurrences in the future, and then they implement any solutions that don’t involve increased accountability for individuals in the government. The reason the government continues to fail is because the government doesn’t cultivate leadership and accountability. It cultivates bureaucracy and vague lines of responsibility. Almost everytime something goes wrong, we find out that many people knew, one or two tried to warn someone higher up the chain, and then that no one could figure out who was responsible for correcting the problem. Often, they did know that the ones warning about the trouble were “troublemakers”, so they often dealt with that problem. It’s the unsexiest issue ever, but we’ll know we have a serious candidate when he or she talks about why government fails and how to fix it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/29 "2016-07-05T10:44:57Z")
That’s easy. Government fails because some elements of the government have a vested interest in making it fail in order to prove their political talking points, and the way to fix it is to stop electing those people. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/30 "2016-07-05T16:31:41Z")
Popular talking point, but not a serious one, since a) the problem is with the incentives, not the people. If there is no system of accountability, performance will be poor in any organizations, and b) all government policies are implemented by both Republicans and Democrats. If accounting for Republicans isn’t part of your planning, it’s a shitty plan. This is an even better argument for accountability though. If the lines of responsibility are clear, if everyone has to stand for the decisions they make and their performance at their job, then we know exactly who screwed up and can vote accordingly. Right now, Democrats have two theories of government failure: 1. Democrats are in office, it’s Republicans’ fault for not making Americans pay higher taxes 2. Republicans are in office, it’s Republicans fault because they are incompetent. Yet this whole problem started under Democratic dominance and is worst in states where Democrats dominate today. Would you rather go to a California DMV or a Utah DMV? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/31 "2016-07-05T17:49:47Z")
As if Republicans are any less corrupt than Democrats. Tell me another fairy tale, Grandma. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/32 "2016-07-05T17:55:42Z")
IT’s not about corruption, it’s about creating a system where nobody is ever at fault and real change never comes. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/33 "2016-07-05T18:13:38Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > There are 2 of those that are “real issues” for every American - Trump’s racism and ISIS - and the bathroom laws are important for a significant percentage of the population. > > So they may not be the issues you wish them to focus on, but they are, in fact, real issues that need discussing. Bathroom laws weren’t an issue until Republicans decided to _make_ them an issue. It is an entirely manufactured issue, and the new laws are a solution in search of a problem. Even the South Dakota governor, a Republican himself, vetoed his state’s bill and pointed out that he couldn’t identify what problem these laws were supposed to correct. This is - and has been - the Republican strategy for decades. They focus on idiotic and inconsequential issues (abortion, gay rights, bathrooms) which they know are (a) emotional (b) divisive and (c) irreconcilable. Because we are talking about matters of emotion and religion it is impossible to reason through them on the basis of evidence and fact, which means the matter can never be definitively settled one way or the other. You know, not that things like “Facts” and “Evidence” meant anything to the Republicans to begin with. But OP is correct. The Republicans consistently focus on minute chickenshit and primitive Hebrew superstition rather than addressing the real problems facing humanity. (That is, how we are going to supply a clean planet and adequate drinking water for 8 billion people, how we are going to permanently stamp out extremist violence in all respects, and how we are going to deal with the maldistribution of wealth.) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/34 "2016-07-09T21:47:14Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Another thing I don’t like about our political system is we focus too much on blame, not on fixing things. Everyone was calling for the governor of Michigan and the mayor of Flint to be arrested after the water crisis. The problem is, the water won’t get cleaner by virtue of these men being behind bars. The water picked up lead from the pipes. It will continue to that as long as the lead pipes are there, and the water is being drawn from the river. My response to that is to replace the pipes, and improve the treatment systems. By that logic you shouldn’t ever arrest a murderer since that won’t bring the victim back to life. The point of the suggestion is to find out whether the governor and mayor went ahead with the plan to cheapen the water supply knowing that some people would get high concentrations of lead in the water? Should they have known? Why didn’t they know it, if indeed they didn’t. And how big a kickback did they get? All things worth investigating for the usual reason we put convicts in prison. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/35 "2016-07-09T23:47:07Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Another thing I don’t like about our political system is we focus too much on blame, not on fixing things. Everyone was calling for the governor of Michigan and the mayor of Flint to be arrested after the water crisis. The problem is, the water won’t get cleaner by virtue of these men being behind bars. The water picked up lead from the pipes. It will continue to that as long as the lead pipes are there, and the water is being drawn from the river. My response to that is to replace the pipes, and improve the treatment systems. The governor refuses to fix the pipes. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/36 "2016-07-10T02:18:25Z")
I’m glad to hear the OP say that bathrooms are not an important issue. So, he thinks the Democrats should stop messing with North Carolina. Right? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/37 "2016-07-10T04:16:23Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I’m glad to hear the OP say that bathrooms are not an important issue. > > So, he thinks the Democrats should stop messing with North Carolina. Right? I’m unaware of any bathroom bills Democrats have passed in North Carolina. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/38 "2016-07-10T16:16:26Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > I’m unaware of any bathroom bills Democrats have passed in North Carolina. Liberals are treating the North Carolina bathroom issue as a VERY big deal. Loretta Lynch is devoting lots of time to it. Celebrities are boycotting the state. Since the OP assures us that bathrooms are not a big issue at all, I assume he wants Lynch and the celebs to stop treating it as an important issue. Right? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/39 "2016-07-10T16:33:03Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Liberals are treating the North Carolina bathroom issue as a VERY big deal. Loretta Lynch is devoting lots of time to it. Celebrities are boycotting the state. Conservative politicians started it by making a big deal out of which bathrooms transgendered person should use, by passing asinine bathroom cop laws. That is the waste of time, not the response by citizens, whose time is not paid for by taxpayers. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928/40 "2016-07-10T16:53:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s easy. Government fails because some elements of the government have a vested interest in making it fail in order to prove their political talking points, and the way to fix it is to stop electing those people. Of course, the root cause is that voters keep electing those people to begin with, and so it is the voters who are ultimately at fault. A democracy, unfortunately, is only as strong as its median value, and when the voters elect to focus on who is taking a piss in which bathroom, the need to build a big wall to keep out all of the people who are artificially keeping our labor costs low, or the ficitious threat of organized Islamic mass terrorism in the continental United States, they can’t be bothered with more complex issues like the urgent need for secondary and collegiate education reform, repairing the increasingly degraded infrastructure, funding basic scientific and medical research for eventual public value, or addressing the increasing socioeconomic gulf and its attentant effects on crime, drug use, and human trafficking. And of course, there are interests vested in manipulating public opinion to remain focused on the former and ignore the latter, and a media establishment which isn’t sufficiently independent or frankly smart enough to buck those interests. Politicians are doing exactly what ‘we’, in the aggregate, want them to do. That they are not doing what the more thoughtful and reasoned people in the room see as real problems is a core feature of democracy. But it’s still at least marginally better than living under an authoritarian despot. At least, for now. Stranger [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-politicians-waste-so-much-time-on-stupid-non-issues/756928.md?page=3)