Today was the last day of my summer internship. It just so happened to coincide with the day all the interns also finally got to meet with the congresswoman. It was an interesting discussion, and it was nice to finally be able to ask some of the questions I’ve been asked all summer.
The experience overall has taught that I am still more naive than I think I am. It goes beyond the fact that I never realized how many crazies there are in the world. All summer, I’ve been a little bit curious about how the other interns were chosen, especially the high schoolers. I know there are soon-to-be high school juniors who are very interested in government and politics. The two high school interns at the office, though nice, pleasant, and polite, were pretty la-dee-da about those topics. They weren’t really sure if they were interested in politics or government at all. Strange choices for interns for the congresswoman I thought.
I was under the impression that merit plays a big role in getting internships with congressmen. I learned today that, out of the summer interns, I was the only one who had no previous connections to my boss. In the end, it was not merit or interest that apparently brought the summer interns on board, but political connections or those of their parents. I realize now that I shouldn’t be too surprised. That’s politics for you. I had just assumed congressional intern programs were somehow exempt from this unfortunate reality.
It all adds up to my continuing disillusionment of the democratic process. I’m getting pretty convinced that I could never be a politician. There are some things I’m just not willing to sacrifice after all, and I could never play a game where even if you play by all the rules and have the most talent, you can still lose and often do.
1 Comment
August 14, 2009 at 10:06 pm
excited to see you lose some more of this tomorrow night!