Ako ang pagbabago, kayo ang boss ko: All the King's Men (1949)

He who wants change, was changed. Willie Stark, the man who is perceived as a nobody. A noble man with a noble cause. The very man that could eradicate the corruption in the political system. He is the man, your man, my man., Willie Stark, remember the name. At the start of the movie, it is very obvious that a man who is naive from politics is an easy prey for the "veterans" of the game. He is an easy catch that can be manipulated in many ways. He was a gopher for the real politicians by being the easy bait of losing the elections. However, on that faithful speech, he found his inner and former self, being the sentimental man who wants to fight the system and be the change everybody wants. Being a hick, for the hick. He is a fiery populist by nature, vindicating his speeches with spurs of emotions that caught up the crowd. It became very easy for him to become popular and gain the political experience he needs. He, however lost the political game, thus he vowed to win because "he now knows how to win". Come next election, long time friend Jack Burden noticed how he became a politician, a dirty one for that matter.

Being the politician he really is, Stark used various ways of politicking in order to win. Using a lot of connections to collect money, buying people's votes, ensuring everybody their own share of promises and a lot more. Traditional politics at its finest, mastered by now Governor Willie Stark in just 1 term. Astonishing as it is, this is reality. In order to win, one must play the game. Morals have no ground in this debate, the end result is just either you win or lose. Whether Stark is bad or good or playing a fool of himself is part of the game. Exhausting all possible and  plausible means, even if it is bad in the eyes of what is the norm. Every move is a strategy, every step counts as a possibility. At the end of the day, all we want is to win the game. Winning should not be lenient only to those who played good and angelic, simply because they did good in their campaign. Winning is everything, even if it would cause havoc for others. Winning is not about a test of morals, it is a test of wits and emotional stability, handling the pressure at its highest level. Winning is that precious, only the strong demands it.

The system or the person, who is wrong? Some would argue that the political system is wrong, simply because it affects the thinking of the people who joined it. They want to win so badly they resort to things such as cheating or using laundry money. Others would argue that it is the person who is wrong, for he/she did not use his/her will to stop what is wrong. If a person knew it was wrong, why should he/she would continue to be involved with it? For me, I would say that nothing is wrong, and that the political environment we have is perfect. The imperfections that can be observed in the political arena makes it imperfectly perfect. The decisions that is made by individual actors, the outside forces that compels and distorts what is happening, and others. This things contribute to the imperfectness of the political system.

Politicians would always play a different ball game that a normal constituent would never appreciate. As a student of politics, I learned that to succeed, others must fail.