The Infamous Always Win

Hey guys,

so today I wanted to talk a little bit about a topic that I believe is very relevant in the U.S. right now, what with election season being in full swing.

And that topic is integrity.

Or rather, lack of integrity. While, I mostly want to discuss this issue in terms of politics, it honestly is evident in so many areas of life. Integrity is such an understated, underappreciated, rare thing nowadays. But nowhere is this more rare than in that messy realm we call “government.”

The line between integrity and hypocrisy has always been drawn clearly in the sandbox where politicians play. While principles and ethics are as much a commodity as the production of sand castles, sticking constantly to those principles is like asking children to solely specialize in those castles. But children, capricious and fickle, cannot be relied on to faultlessly stick to one thing.

Politicians are not so different. In a world dependent on connections and exchanges, politicians often toe the line, appeasing others through an inevitable compromise of their beliefs. But have we, the people, made rules for when the rules of principles ought to be broken? While today integrity is as rare as Donald Trump not appearing on the news, the fact that Donald Trump is constantly on the news speaks to the dangerous truth that we, the citizens, are the ones allowing the Trumps to thrive, rather than lauding those who have integrity without even needing the line.

A few months ago I was writing an essay for a competition whose theme was “political courage.” The subject of my essay was a woman named Patsy Mink, a Senator from Hawaii who became a controversial champion of rights in 1960’s America. I learned that, despite representing a military constituency, Mink fought vehemently against the United States’ continued involvement in the Vietnam War, speaking against the inhumane use of violence and human rights violations. Facing being called cantankerous, bossy, stubborn, and egotistical, Mink never wavered from her stance, despite going directly against the wishes of her party. The backlash she received from her party caused her to publicly wonder “if politics is worth the sacrifice of principles.“ While to me she represented what a true leader should embody, it surprised me that not only had I never heard of her before, but neither had many others.

Why then, why is it that a woman who so valiantly stood by her beliefs, something we all claim to celebrate, a woman who sacrificed her reputation and her future re-election, is so little known?

Around the same time period, there was another politician. One a little bit more well-known. In fact, he was not only representing one state, but the entire nation. In 1973, President Richard Nixon was involved in one of the biggest scandals of American political history. Following the arrest of five burglars for breaking and entering into the DNC headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. President Nixon attempted to cover up his involvement with the crime. It was soon revealed, however, that Nixon had secretly taped confidential conversations in the Oval Office, as well as paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in “hush money” to the burglars. The scandal was talked about incessantly by the media and amongst friend circles, making Nixon unbearably famous.

This, to me, is the root of the problem. How can we give such undivided attention to politicians such as Nixon who abuse their power and lack any sort of integrity, when we should be focusing on teaching about and celebrating the values politicians like Patsy Mink encapsulate?

A person with integrity is a person whose rule of ethics is uninfluenced by external factors. A politician with integrity is thus one who refuses to listen to those offering instant gratification in exchange for a compromise of their principles. So why don’t more politicians practice what they preach? Because we don’t let them. If you consider the line in the sand dictating between right and wrong, most leaders of our country surreptitiously blur the line with their toe. They dance around it, flitting back and forth depending on who they want to please, or what they want to cover up. While I’m sure there are plenty of excuses to be made for the corruption and fickle nature of government, it really, truly goes back to the people.

We are the bystanders.

We are the encouragers.

In the sandbox, when there’s a fight over crossing lines, there is always an audience that encourages and fuels the conflict. We might pretend to turn away in disgust, but in reality we’re turning away to give them the chance to do “what they need to do” in order to get what we want. True integrity is lacking not because politicians don’t have principles, but because they are so willing to tiptoe the line, and we’re so willing to let them.

Politicians like Patsy Mink exemplify that to be virtuous is to throw water on that line, smudge it out of existence, because a principled politician cannot rely on anybody’s moral boundaries but their own. If we stop giving attention to those undeserving of it, politicians will be encouraged to be brave enough to lead for the actual benefit of the majority, guided solely by the consistency of their individual moral compass.

And with that, friends, I leave you to the bliss of the weekend.