Real Public Servants

The old adage says that people who desire public office should be disqualified from it. A law is needed to dissuade absolute narcissists from such service while not explicitly excluding anyone who wishes to serve.

I recommend that all levels of public service (from county treasurer to president) entail a non-trivial amount (40-50 hours a month) of public servitude. I'm talking about the stuff that would qualify as "community service" in most places -- picking up trash, volunteering for the Salvation Army, teaching classes in prison, etc.

The system would have to be set up to keep such service as genuine as possible. Activities that rely on the uniqueness of the individual's office (signing autographs, giving speeches, running fund raisers where they are the main attraction, etc.) would be disqualified from counting towards this service. The politicians would not be able to chose who else they bring to (or exclude from) the event, perhaps except limited security personnel. They would have to vary the organizations they serve with (as well as their location) and mostly stick with well-established organizations (which are not of an explicitly political nature).

Although politicians are known to do such things for photo-ops, I doubt that the truly lowlife types would stick around long enough once this requirement got put in place. Those that do turn whatever they are doing into celebrations of themselves would still serve the symbolic purpose of highlighting various things in the community that need attention beyond what is politically expedient at the moment.