I completely agree that our electoral systems are terrible at filtering out people who need to work on themselves first (though I think most — certainly not all — people who are relatively well-adjusted are smart enought to avoid politics). But so are all of our systems, because we all need to work on ourselves. We all have faults and failings, and none of us reaches 100% of their potential. If we’re fortunate our failures don’t outweigh our accomplishments.

How do we measure potential? Perhaps we should judge the worth of a person’s accomplishments by their intent. Did the person who only achieved 75% of their potential work to reduce poverty or fight sex trafficking despite their addiction? Was the person who stayed clean and achieved a larger part of their lesser potential a brilliant attorney for the mob? Kennedy and Johnson pursued and accomplished important progressive legislation, and led us into Vietnam as well. Was the good they did greater than their personal and political failures?

We shouldn’t condone failures. But perhaps we can forgive them.