Editorial: Let's Give Joe Adame A Chance ...

Let’s Give Joe Adame a Chance …
It is easy to be cynical about our politicians, especially when you have politician for profit operating openly amidst the crowd. Bonds, certificates of obligation, new development (funded by tax dollars of course) – these are just some of the raise red flags in the citizenry.
Mayor-elect Adame has expressed both motives that seem both tangible and honorable. He identified an area that he wants to work on – “Uniting the city.” If it is truly a top priority – it is one tha that has been in our minds for a long time. But Mayor-elect Adame is now in a position to do anything about it.
I pray that Mayor-elect Adame’s motives were not just a sales pitch to get elected. Again, I hope he is a man of reason and compassion. He cannot, of course, be given a free check of high praise such early in his career of public service.
There are politicians for too long associated with the EDC that have been venal, corrupt, self-seeking and amoral. Additionally, they tend to be over-endowed with vanity and ambition. We pray Adame departs from the culture of greed and will be more spiritually idealistic than the average, and more practically concerned with the welfare of their fellow citizens.
Most politicians follow a familiar sequence. They start as idealists, impatient with compromise, and become gradually more pragmatic with age. Often, amid the ruthless calculations necessary to make it to the top, they lose sight of the human values which first inspired them. In any case, the service of the public good becomes easily confused with vainglory. One of the motives for any mayor has always been to secure their place in history. Indeed, all the architects of the “Pro Growth” movement want to bask in public approval. That is no bad thing, however, and as a criticism it is a far cry from the cynical assumption that all politicians are sleazeballs.
El Defenzor has pointed out repeatedly that some politicians are subject to many universal human weaknesses: they can be stupid, greedy and dishonest. But they are also more likely than most to seek, as John Smith said in his unintended epitaph, "the chance to serve". Theirs is the spirit of restlessness on which civilization has been built: the desire to order society better, to make a difference to people's lives.
As a class, politicians are as much distrusted as lawyers and journalists, but they are, as one commentator has characterized them, "There can be some honest opportunists". As we await the verdict of the peoples of Mayor-elect Adame, we should pause before we pass judgment so early on after an election.