Don't let short term goals become your long term goals

Setting short term goals is a great technique for reaching long term goals, but don't let the short term goals become the long term goals. Has this happened to our politicians? Did they begin with long term goals like, "We must improve health care", and "We must eliminate government waste"? Did they set short term goals such as "Get elected" to meet these long term goals? Has their goal then become simply, "Get and stay elected?"