> What you want is administration - a very different process where mature competent executives and managers who do not have Dark Triad personality traits make intelligent, informed, and compassionate decisions in the public interest based on evidence, expert guidance, and their own good instincts.

Which is basically inhuman. For an administration of any sort, you need a selection process and the selection process will then be gamed by exactly the people who seek power.

Which is why we have large bodies of political representatives: people will not stop seeking to acquire power and act in their interests and the interests of their backers, but they will be counteracted by people doing exactly the same but pursuing different ends. That’s a very human thing.

I only have some experience in low-level politics in a parliamentary system based on proportional representation, though I know a number of mid-level politicians and kind of know some top-level politicians in my home country.

Based on what I have seen, most politicians genuinely believe they are working for the common good. Their understanding of what the common good is obviously varies.

In a system like that, politics is mostly about playing the long game. You build a personal brand that gets you elected and re-elected and gives you influence within your party. You build and maintain your networks, you collect political capital by supporting others' goals, and you spend the capital to advance your own goals. You try to find a balance between short-term and long-term goals, because your opponents today may be your allies tomorrow, and you don't want to alienate them by playing too hard.

Unpleasant and toxic people may sometimes survive in politics. They are rarely successful, because politics is all about people skills, at least in the system I know of. (Such people are more common in administrative positions, because their status is more secure in a meritocratic hierarchy.) People focused on specific topics often also have a hard time in politics, because they have a tendency of becoming unpleasant when things don't go their way in the niche they are interested in.

The public image of politics can be toxic, because the current publicity game requires it. The same politicians often appear quite different behind closed doors, where they are allowed to speak off the record.

The purpose of this particular device was to permit a vote in the National House of Representatives to be taken in a minute or so, complete lists being furnished of all members voting on the two sides of any question Mr. Edison, in recalling the circumstances, says: "Roberts was the telegraph operator who was the financial backer to the extent of $100. The invention when completed was taken to Washington. I think it was exhibited before a committee that had something to do with the Capitol. The chairman of the committee, after seeing how quickly and perfectly it worked, said: 'Young man, if there is any invention on earth that we don't want down here, it is this. One of the greatest weapons in the hands of a minority to prevent bad legislation is filibustering on votes, and this instrument would prevent it.' I saw the truth of this, because as press operator I had taken miles of Congressional proceedings, and to this day an enormous amount of time is wasted during each session of the House in foolishly calling the members' names and recording and then adding their votes, when the whole operation could be done in almost a moment by merely pressing a particular button at each desk. For filibustering purposes, however, the present methods are most admirable." Edison determined from that time forth to devote his inventive faculties only to things for which there was a real, genuine demand, something that subserved the actual necessities of humanity. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/820/pg820.txt