Also know as Double standards…
When we venture out into the world, there are certain standards of conduct that we expect from people, there are certain standards that we expect them to live by, and we judge them by our idea of ethics. For Military people it is the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Federal Law that lays out the acceptable conduct of military personnel. This tells them what is expected of them, and what can happen to them of they violate these standards.
Most of use are bound by City, County, State and Federal Law, and the violation of these laws might result in fines and/or imprisonment.
Christians have the 10 Commandments, which tell them how they are supposed to act, though there are other sections of the bible that lay out other requirements, it is still the 10 Commandments that get the most attention.
Evan social organisations have standards of conduct, the violation of which might result in expulsion.
One of my favorite quotes by a fictional character is by Gen. Freeman, in a book written by Ian Slater. The General is talking about prostitutes and makes the statement “prostitutes, their little better than politicians”. I have always thought that statement said a lot… So what does this have to do with the conversation?
The question is : why do we set such low standards for politicians? If my friends lied to me as much as the average politician I would stay away from him but, in the case of the people we put into some government office, to represent us, we set the ethical bar so low that the only way they seem to run afoul of it is to land in jail.
Teddy Kennedy‘s drunk driving killed a young woman on his staff. If I had gotten drunk, run off the road into the water, and had left the young woman to drown I would have probably been in jail for murder. Teddy just kept getting reelected, which just goes to show the type of standards the voters in his state had. Newt Gingrich tried to appeal to the conservative Christians in Florida, in spite of his having not only cheated on 2 out of 3 wives but had broken his oath to Jehovah twice, that we know of. Fortunately the Christian population did NOT fall for it. When Marco Rubio was running for office he told the people, who would vote for him, that his parents fled the tyranny of Fidel Castro, in spite of the fact that they had left Cuba several years BEFORE Castro got into power, they still voted for him.
If you are really interested in the standards of your favorite politician then write down his statements about his opponent, and then check them with one of the fact check websites, and see how much truth you can get out of them….. MOSTLY TRUE is NOT the TRUTH… and as Fox Mulder used to say “the truth is out there”.
Lets start to hold Politicians to the same standards we would anybody else, which doesn’t include lawyers, banker, used car salesmen, military recruiters.. oh, I think you get the idea.
Related articles
- Politicians have Self-Interest too, but Ethics seem to be a problem…Part II (onemorecup.wordpress.com)
- These politicians need to pay up (miamiherald.com)
- Partisan Standards of Ethics (danariely.com)
- Code of Ethics (caseywheeler1.wordpress.com)
That Joe Guy 