“In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.”

Some do, and some make no such pretense.

Sometimes a benevolent master is needed and sometimes not -- Christ could be called a benevolent master. Unfortunately the world is full of unscrupulous and self-serving masters with our own not too far from the top.

Most current politicians pose as servants. Scrutinize what they do to us (i.e. increase our taxes, wage war on innocent people, vote for their own benefits, etc.) and you realize they serve themselves.

I generally don't think of politicians as "Masters". They work for me, or I do my best to undermine them and remove them from office. So far, I've done pretty well, after I moved from Massachussets. Could not get rid of either of the bums in the Senate.

ahh, the difference between a democracy and a republic. In a democracy, the servant of the state is master to the individual until he is voted out of office or, in the case of non-elected officials, masters for life. In a republic, as defined in the de jure U.S., all governmental officiates remain servants to the individual sovereigns.

Mike has got it right. Unfortunately most of us think of government as our rulers and thus expect from government what indeed is our own responsibility. De Gaulle was a master politician -- he speaks of business-as-usual here in the States.

The way we should determine the policies set forth by our politicians is not by their intent, but by their results. Most of us fail to do that and the politicians know exactly what the results will be...they just don't want you to know...

Public Servents: Persons chosen by the people to distribute the graft. Mark Twain