But it's interesting to me how many politicians say "No".
If we're simply rewinding the tape - going back in time to a period when we had no idea what the future would hold - that's reasonable. If you don't know the consequences of your actions, odds are you would do the same thing over again. But the question implies knowledge - that you'll be making your choices with full awareness of how your decisions turned out.
As I see it, there are two appropriate responses to that question:
Yes, of course in retrospect I would have done things differently.
No. Even though I made mistakes I like the way my life has turned out.
But if that's their honest answer - they truly would not do things differently - it's probably for the best that they're out of office. The conceit of, "I didn't make mistakes, and all bad outcomes resulted from the actions of others," suggests a disconcerting combination of narcissism and of an external locus of responsibility. That's true even if the politician means well - even if he thought his policies were the best for the people he represented. Actually it may be worse if the politician means well because, in retrospect, it should be easy for him to identify mistakes in his approach to the issues, his opponents and his constituents that, if corrected, might have resulted in greater success for his policies.
A better question is "What would you have done differently?" As phrased, it's more of a gotcha; "anything" is so broad that clearly anyone who answers no is either lying or an egomaniac, but saying yes implies "I made some serious mistakes."
ReplyDeleteYou're right, that's a much better question. Although no experienced politician would treat a "yes or no" question as actually requiring a one-word answer. ;)
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