This year, one of the most popular topics of discussion concerns the quality of our political discourse - or the lack thereof. As our election approaches, we watch debates where shouting, name-calling, and interruption take the place of intelligent discussion of policy - or in most cases, we brag about how we DIDN’T watch it. If you’re on social media, it’s almost impossible to escape the bitterness and frustration so many are expressing toward both sides of the political aisle.

And despite whether you were “rooting” for one side or the other, even if you believe that one party is behaving itself in a more seemly manner than the other, most of us seem to come to the same conclusion:

We deserve better.

But it’s worth asking the question: do we really deserve better? If we’re really being honest about ourselves, about our culture, and about how it got this way, the reality is that we’re getting exactly what we deserve. Because when we look to human leadership, seeking deliverance from our troubles from some other person or political group or human ideology or concocted utopian fantasy, this is what we get: flawed leaders pandering to flawed people to give those people what (they believe) they want. 

But what people want - what they believe they deserve - is rarely what they need.