Do Politicians Affect Our Lives Personally?

I was watching the news this morning like I always do and I saw a commercial that I have seen once before. It asks if Barbara Boxer has affected your life personally in her 28 years as a politician.. I think it actually asked if you could name three things she has done to affect your life personally. Whatever the question, it made me think this morning.

Is it the job of a politician to affect our lives on a personal basis? I don't know if it is. What I do know is that most people are so blinded by politics that they could not even notice if a politician affected their lives on a personal level. The only time they do notice is when it hits them in the wallet in the form of a tax increase. Most people don't even give politicians credit when a new park is built or when their roads are repaved. And they really don't even want to notice when politicians make decisions that better the lives of those that are less fortunate.

I don't know if Barbara Boxer, or any other single politician for that matter, have affected my life personally. I would guess that they have many times, but I could not really name them. I think the better question is if politicians should really affect our lives personally. I think they work for the greater good which means that most times it may be difficult to determine what they have done to affect us on a personal level. Is that even their job?

I think this commercial is just trying to create fear in the voters. Fear that one of their elected officials has been in office too long and that she is not really doing her job. I don't know if this fear tactic will work, but this is now the status quo in political commercials. They rarely talk about positive items any more, instead focusing on the negative in order to create fear. I hate it!