There are endless complaints about the government here. There’s a good reason for that, the government is rife with cronyism and corruption. The general sentiment seems to be that if only they had a good person in power, everything would be just fine. I am going to ignore, for right now, the idea that the government should not only be in charge of fixing things, but of running everything. No one seems to understand that this government is exactly what you can expect when you wish for what everyone here wishes for. Almost to a person, the Yemenis see a powerful, centralized government being controlled by a strong man as the ideal. The government should be in charge of the economy, be in charge of handing out jobs, and of course be in charge of upholding sharia law. It should be headed by a strong man that has the power to make different factions bend to his will. Many people actively dream of having a king…
In theory, if you got the right guy, a benevolent, enlightened, wise man to run a government like that, it wouldn’t be so bad. I still don’t think it would be ideal, but it wouldn’t be as bad as it is now. Of course, there is never anyone like that running a government. Why not? Surely there are people that fit that description in the world, how come they are never elected to be benevolent dictator? The reason of course is that people that crave power are drawn to positions that offer power. The people that crave power have the stomach to do what they need to in order to get that power. A good person would never have a chance in competition with people like that. When you invest a leader with almost total control, you can expect the person that eventually occupies that post is more power hungry than benevolent. You can also expect that person to take full advantage of his position once he attains it.
The are countless examples of this anywhere where the myth of the powerful leader heading the perfect government exists. The Arabic nations are an easy list of examples, but South America and Central America are just as guilty. You’ll notice what all of those places seem to have in common, underperforming economies and human rights abuses. The founders of the US knew what they were doing when they put the different branches of government into opposition. By limiting the power of the executive, legislative, and judicial, we have been able to benefit from the power struggle between them over all these years.
One thing I have learned from being in Yemen is that we need to watch out for politicians promising to “fix” whatever problems we have. You can be assured that whatever they say is only being said in order to be elected. It is their quest for office that motivates them. Thankfully, a president has limited impact on sweeping changes in the US (with the exception of foreign policy), so most of his promises amount to little more than pandering. What we need is a candidate that will tell us to solve our own problems, stop looking to the government to fix everything. That candidate will never get very far because people want to believe in the Philosopher King in government instead of facing up to the real motivations behind the quest for power.