A fool will always be a fool, especially after the election.
Why is it a mistake to forsake character when casting our vote?
Make no mistake about it – many state and national level politicians openly demonstrate more about themselves and their true character than ever before – the good, bad and the ugly laid bare for all to see and evaluate – compromised character in our politics, press, pundits, platforms, pay outs, and pay offs are no longer hidden or covered up.
There seems to be a nationwide acceptance of lies fake/false narratives, hypocritical positions, personal attacks, and massive grifting unashamedly from both major political parties – all fueled by billions of dollars from agenda hungry PACs, special interests, and organizations motivated by self interest over any effort to consider the greater good.
Sadly, it feels as though character does not matter as long as certain agenda items are addressed by our party or candidate – all of us have specific political agenda items that are important to us – so important that we’ve succumb to supporting parties and candidates with very compromised characters – yes, these agenda items are critical, but are they critical enough that we should bed ourselves with the worst corrupt politics has to offer? It’s not very popular these days, but some feel its past time for “we the people” to put a stop to this.
The noise and hype from the flood of character flawed voices is so loud and far reaching that ‘plain-speak’ voices, positions and platforms are being drowned out – we’re sinking into a political environment that believes louder is better regardless of associated character flaws – truth is secondary to attention grabbing – reality is subordinate to fabricated narratives – facts are conveniently ignored to bait a viewer/reader into a tainted narrative.
Every political actions (good or bad) has a tail left in its wake – that tail will always be positive progress, or negative fallout – the potential for positive progress is greatly diminished if the behavior comes from a person, party, or platform neck deep in compromised character – this can’t be more evident if we consider the cost of the negative fallout – the cost will always have a greater negative impact on the lesser of us, than the more comfortable of us.
Now, more than ever, we should consider the character of those running, and the character of those who promote politicians – if their behavior illustrates gross character flaws, perhaps we should reconsider regardless of our political leanings – critical agenda items fall by the wayside every two years – these items can be recovered and reenergized – but a character flawed elected official (at any level) will have lasting and far reaching negative fallout – this fall out drags us deeper into political chaos, and farther from an atmosphere of addressing the greater good of the nation.
FACTS: Character is an essential trait for leadership, politics, or public service – character builds trust and credibility, promotes loyalty to the people, and impowers positive progress – a person of good character is someone who understands integrity, responsibility, compassion, and forgiveness – persons of good character are selfless, caring for others more than themselves – but on the other hand…
MORE FACTS: Persons of compromised character cannot be trusted speak truth or keep their promises – they pass blame to others – they punish others for their bad behavior – they are easily coerced into deeper compromises – they do not care for others – their motives are not the motives of a nation longing for truth and justice.
We often see public service with a focus on people skills, communications skills, vision, intelligence, business insight, even confidence – truth be told, none of that will make a good public servant without a foundational good character – all of those people skills can be tainted by bad character in the long run.
No political agenda item carries more weight than members of our government that are trustworthy, reliable, honest, loyal to the people not the party, brave, seek common good, open to counsel/discovery, considers perspectives of other ideas, and have moral courage – just for starters.
Tragically, both parties and most candidates exhibit only a fraction of these critical character traits – and somehow, we’ve become accepting of this fact – shame on us.
Do we plan to vote for someone we know (deep down) lacks self-discipline and moral courage? We know they will not do what is right in the face of party pressures – we know they don’t have any core values that guide their behavior – we know they don’t have any true sense of identity that governs their decisions and motives.
In most cases we know the truth – we know they are they just another mouth piece for corrupt politics – they’re just posturing for agendas that support the few, and build up their personal gain – time and time again their compromised character is on full display, and many of us will still vote for them.
Intelligence, talent and all those skill-based competencies are irrelevant to public service, leadership, and governance without good character – this is why the compromised, self-serving, charismatic sometimes get ahead initially, but eventually they will be found out and we can only blame ourselves.
Good character is not just for the noble hearted, it is a choice – it’s a whole series of choices – both parties and most politicians have already been making their choices – now it time for us to make ours.
Kevin's Thoughts 