Dateline: December 5, 2006

Ethical Politicians

In survey after survey, students, adults, and who knows who, have consistently pointed out that politicians are among the most distrusted of any class, group, or profession. Some would say the latter reference is a stretch because it is the lack of professionalism and petty squabbling that does them in every time.

So why do we put up with it?

Think about it. Someone wants to run for office and with a bit of luck they get elected. Normally they promise the moon, but the moon is hardly what they deliver. The reason they can't deliver is because they never meant to or never really had the ability to gather the support. Most often it is something they can not even influence, let alone change. Sad, but true.

On the other hand, if they can effect some change with their new power, they soon find they have been thrown into the pit with other rookie politicians and they have to earn their way out. Otherwise, they will be there for awhile. Somebody, perhaps an adversary or a member of the 'powers to be' , gets something on them and whatever idealism they may have innocently portrayed is now history. They soon learn they can't deliver unless they compromise their own values. Anyone who has seen the movie The Devil's Advocate will get exactly what I mean.

As a personal compromise and a rationalization, many politicians quickly learn how to play the polls and each other, and flip-flop with the wind from one position to another because it is the will of the people and politically expedient. Whatever the polls say is what they say, even to the point of personal compromise and shredding of their own values. If the local poll is saying one thing and the national poll is saying another, they will opt to cozy up to the one that affects them the most. Need examples? Watch those declaring and running for president.

Political life is not pleasant. It's been rightly called a jealous mistress. It breaks up families, finds offspring abandoned to adulthood and drives many to drugs and alcohol. A misplaced word, a misplaced look, a wrongfully worded email; you name it and the career is gone - history. The first thing politicians learn is how to intimidate others for survival. Many, if not all, have their staffers looking up dirt on their adversaries from before they took office, and, if they have not ordered it, someone on their staff certainly has picked up the ball. How do they go about this? Easy, they use good old Yankee dollars, massage their press contacts, and spread half truth and false rumors to slay an opponent without mercy. Rumors are spread right at the grass roots including infiltrating the local babershops and beauty salons to spread the dirt.

Campaign contributions reform is a farce. Want to get elected? Spend the most money. Want to get the most money? Make sure you are in the right pocket of the wealthiest supporter. Want to be a rising star? Find out who pulls the strings of your wealthiest supporters and saddle up to them and make them your new best friends. If you are getting the point that it is not what you know but who you know, you quickly come away with the realization that we are definitely not getting the best and the brightest to lead us.

What we are getting in ever increasing numbers are those who are connected. They went to the right schools, (ever seen the hall of presidents in the Boston Harvard Club), flourished up the ladder because someone spotted a 'comer' they could manipulate (lots of money does this), or the erstwhile candidate is born into or are related to the right family (Gore, Bush, Kennedy, Taft, Lodge, Roosevelt, etc., etc., etc.)

Public service has long been the domain of the richest in the world. It is their way of not staying idle, giving there kids purpose in life, and avoiding having the masses take their fortunes away from them. And, at the other end, where else can you go into public office without two nickels to rub together and come out a millionaire 20 years later -- never ever holding a job other than one on the public dole?

Does all this sound a bit cynical? It should. There are many of us who feel our so-called democratic system of government is just as corrupt as any you can imagine. Do you doubt this? Start with the lobbyists, the army of former politicians with connections working for big bucks from those agencies that want something. Is it any wonder that the insider publication for this group is called INFLUENCE? To get rid of the corruption, one might easily suggest you get rid of the lobbyists. They are like the drug dealers that circle our public schools waiting for the innocents to come out and play.

When Congress talks about ethics in business they really need to look at their own house. When a pompous sub committee investigates Enron or any organization of their unethical ilk, they also ought to be looking at themselves. The biggest bank fraud in America took place right in the Capital in and among the legislators and their sweetheart deals with their own credit union. Apart from the window dressing and, I'm sorry's, not a single one of them was indicted, convicted, or sent to jail. And, does anyone remember the savings and loan scandals and in particular one Lincoln Savings and Loan bilking of widows and retirees? The in-depth involvement of a current leading candidate to be our next president and several other prominent senators cost them nothing except a bit of embarrassment. On reflection, this may never have happened had lobbyists been kept outside the Capital building.

What can be done about bringing REAL ethics into the halls of Congress, state legislatures, Governors' offices, The White House, our local county and state offices? Well, we start with the basics - To tell the truth!

Then, we can move on from there.