Things You Should Consider Before Entering Politics

WITH THE UPCOMING locals elections many citizens are making the decision to enter the political arena and run for public office for the very first time.

Doing so is a huge undertaking and requires a lot of sacrifice, so it is worth asking yourself the following questions before deciding to take the plunge:

Is your mother or father already a politician? If the answer is no then you might as well pack it in now.

Double, triple and quadruple check your social media and scrub anything incriminating such as that incendiary tweet in which you stated ‘Derry Girls is overrated’.

Will your confidence and self worth take a hit when you have to adjust to earning a lot of money but not actually doing much in the way of work?

Do you have a direct family member to employ as a parliamentary assistant? There’s no point getting into this game if there isn’t jobs earmarked for the boys.

Have you the smarts? Be you a government TD or in opposition, it’s not easy to blame your poor performance in government on migrants, nor is it straightforward blaming the government’s poor performance on migrants. That take skill and a unique political acumen.

Imagination is important, you’ll need it if you’re to stand any chance of promising to building 100,000 houses overnight while growing nurses and teachers on trees.

Do you know what the word modesty means? If you do, you might not be politician material, possessing any understanding of the word could get in the way of claiming sole responsibility for every positive outcome and project that occurs in a constituency.

Do you have principles? Do they evaporate at the first sign of power? If they answer to both is yes then you just might have what it takes!