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Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.
~~ Nikita Khrushchev ~~ (1894 - 1971)

That’s quite a generalization but nonetheless true in the case of most politicians if not all the politicians. Politicians all over make ridiculous promises which they can not deliver.

The question is: Why do politicians make promises they know or ought to know, they can’t keep? I think there are two primary reasons for it:

1. Democratic form of government, though far more superior than any other form of government mankind has known or experienced so far, is still plagued with a lot of imperfections. Many a times the people (voters) do not have much of a choice in electing their government; they just have to choose between the devil and the deep sea. This situation discourages people from participating in the election of their government as evidenced by dwindling turnout at the polls.
2. The people in democracies themselves have to share some of the blame for their politicians making unrealistic or totally ridiculous promises like ‘the promise to build a bridge where there is no river.’ :-) We, the people as voters, vote mostly for those politicians who promise us the rose garden! Most politicians, being humans like the rest of us, soon realize that to ‘win’ they must learn the art of ‘extending the truth’ and convincingly deliver unrealistic promises. Those politicians who fail to master this ‘art’ or whose conscience won’t allow them to play this ‘game’ soon drop out of the game or are sidelined. And we end up with the type of politicians we have today.

Blaming the politicians or ridiculing them won’t solve the problem. We all need to think as to how to improve the system of electing our governments and work towards improving it.