Unlicensed to Shill: How We End Up Hiring Politicians Without Qualifications or Accountability

May 19, 2025

The West is in decline. One symptom (or cause) of this decline is that instead of electing leaders, we have crisis managers, more interested in the performance of re-arranging the deck chairs of a sinking ship. While the population is distracted, they use their position to loot the treasury. Solving problems isn’t even in their realm of understanding or concern.

Trust in elected officials has never been lower. Lets start the timeline of public trust with Caesar, who told Romans that not only should he and his family’s behavior be unimpeachable, they should not even have the appearance of impropriety. Two thousand and seventy years later, Paul Pelosi, the husband of former US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi makes trades that, in ten years, yield gains of nearly 800%, significantly beating the S&P’s 230% return. His most famous trade involved buying call options on Nvidia stock which allowed him to buy $6.77 million worth of stock for $600,000.[1]

Politicians now are regularly linked to corruption, cronyism, speaking duplicitously, being out of touch with their constituents, incompetence, having no punishment mechanism applied to their actions, and more.

Haven't we had enough?

I propose that elected officials, in order to stand for office, and to continue to govern, must hold a license to perform those duties issued by a non-partisan body.

The license requires that representatives of the people, always demonstrate the highest standards of integrity, always act in the best interest of their constituents, and exude professionalism.

Having integrity means they must act ethically in all official dealings with all people and organizations.

• They can not represent or be seen to represent a lie, including misleading information, omissions, deceptive practices, or fraud.
• If they speak about a subject, they are required to have thoroughly researched and formed a thoughtful opinion that respects the values of their constituents.
• There can be no claims of “I did not know about…” they should have done their done diligence before speaking.
• Contract awards must detail any personal relationships with those who are receiving the contracts.
• If the licensee states a fact, they should already have made available their source(s), because that is what a professional would do.
• Conflicts of interest are not permitted.
• Except for national security matters, all activities and decisions are transparent.
• The licensee cannot claim something is a protected national security issue, when it is not.
• They should not seek favor or interfere in any other government or oversight body not under their control.

Representing their constituents means they must value and seek to enhance the public resources of their position, and the quality of life of the electorate.

• They must exercise the will of those who elected them.
• Once elected, they cannot reverse an election pledge given during campaigning.
• All licensees are required to declare all income not part of their salary.
• The names of donors is public information, freely and quickly available.
• The discovery of undeclared property and accounts would be a severe infraction and I suspect the voters would expect the individuals’ license be revoked in such cases.

Behaving professionally means their actions must always be performed with skill.

• If they lack the needed the skills, consult with someone who has them.
• They cannot participate in illegal activity, must uphold the law, and must avoid activity that discredits the political profession.

Violations of the code of conduct can include reprimands such as a fine, the licensee taking a training course, educating them about their infraction. For serious breaches such as fraud, receiving undeclared donations, or insider trading the license may be revoked preventing the person from governing.

The non-partisan regulatory body will be largely an administrative organization. When a decision must be made regarding the actions of a particular licensee, the body will pull a group of twelve random people from the voter registration rolls. A judge will organize the public hearing and the twelve will decide if the licensee's action require censure. A judge will decide for themselves based on the case, if they need a unanimous or majority decision from the twelve. The judge will then set the penalty.

The regulatory body will also develop training programs for their licensees. The legislator will be required to take a set of courses when they are first licensed, take refresher courses at regular intervals, and take more classes as part of any infraction rehabilitation. Subjects can include ethics, policy literacy, history, law and others.

Separate regulatory bodies exist at union of federations, federal, state and local government levels. This is for flexibility. Politicians at different levels have different ranges of issues they are concerned with, their constituent profile is different. The way we hold them accountable should be different as well.

This is also why I have not set a punishment schedule as it should be up to each individual regulatory authority to match them with the values of the people the licensee serves.

Of course, the politicians who this system is meant to regulate will find flaws in it. Having a regulatory body is not perfect, but we cannot continue the way we are. We can always fine tune the details as we move forward. Individual bodies have the flexibility to tailor their version as they please adjusting for local considerations.

They will say such a system will restrict the amount of candidates who seek office. Yes, that is true, it will deter undesirable candidates. If a person has honest intentions, obtaining a license should be almost effortless. The financial cost now required to run a successful campaign is more of a restriction than any license could be.

Imagine having trust in elected officials. How would it feel to know that politicians are constantly accountable for their actions, and not just once on election day?

Why are we treating the most important positions of power as though it were an amateur hobby? The people deserve better. Start today by contacting everyone you know, sharing this article, and together demand that your politicians at every level implement this political licensing framework for the sake of the future, and our combined quality of life.

[1] https://nypost.com/2025/01/23/business/nancy-pelosis-husband-made-38m-worth-of-stock-trades-before-inauguration/

Zaarin -- Founder n·h·g