[yalogin]

I get the overall sentiment and agree with it. However, politicians themselves don't listen to praises or criticism for the most part. Once they are elected, they don't have to work on making things better for their constituents. It's much easier to find a boogeyman or an issue to rouse the mob than do things. That is what our politics have become. Anything good needs years of cajoling and convincing to do and unfortunately the lingering positives for the politicians who did that will be quickly overpowered by a negative sentiment/boogeyman issue. The way things are at this point, only negatives have rentention power and we stopped dealing with positives anymore.

[prego_xo]

That's true, but I just think it doesn't have to be that way. The only thing politicians care about more than money is being re-elected, so perhaps if more people took note of the good, populace-serving things that politicians at least supported and made it a point to say that that's the cause of their vote, then maybe politicians would be more inspired to do similar things. As soon as people begin to discount good actions as flukes and uplift negatives as the reason why they aren't voting for someone, both sides get jaded very quickly and lose sight of their purpose.

Voters exist to reinforce positive behaviors in politicians, and politicians exist to exhibit those positive behaviors. You can't teach someone with punishment alone.