Some berate us for suggesting that a politician’s personal life is an important indicator of how they will serve in public life. I will continue to argue that a public figure who is incapable of honoring the most cherished covenants between God and man, that of matrimony and parenthood, is equally incapable of fulfilling his obligations to those who elected him to office. As constituents we cannot expect better treatment from someone who lies and cheats on his family.
Sometimes it seems we spend too much time on this blog pointing out that the shortcomings of our elected leaders in their personal lives. Unfortunately, those shortcomings more often than not translate into corruption against the public. Ethics and integrity are not situational. One has them and practices them in all aspects of his life or he does not have them at all.
This is not to say that even our most ethical of elected leaders will not make mistakes, sometimes even of an ethical nature. But an occasional slip up in judgment is very different than living a life of deceit. It doesn’t matter how many one-sided investigations a governmental agency may commission, actions speak louder.
In our June primary we will have choices in several races to boot out incumbents who have not only violated their marriage vows, but in doing so have put public funds at risk because of their inability to control their actions while on duty. These same incumbents will bombard us with rhetoric to get our votes. When they cannot keep their vows to their spouses, do we really expect them to keep their campaign promises to us?
Morality does not exist among many of our elected leaders; however I believe most who vote for them are moral. That contradiction can be corrected if we take the time to support those who are moral and reject they who are not.
When somebody asked Ross Perot why he should care when his employees have affairs, he responded “If your wife can’t trust you, how can I?”.
As a challenger in the coming election, I’ve decided that I’m not going to go out of my way to talk about short comings a candidate has in their personal life, unless they do so to me. I made that decision for a couple of reasons:
1) Just because somebody has a lack of “dirt” doesn’t mean they’re clean, it probably means they didn’t get caught. I would rather elect a rat than a rat that can cover his tracks.
2) We have all made mistakes we’re not proud of. What we’ve done in the past isn’t nearly as important as what we do today and in the future.
3) It takes away the focus of what’s important – fixing problems and making the world a better place for us and our children.
Believe me, Ramos’ infidelity is the least our problems. Real estate fraud is out of control in San Bernardino County, yet Ramos and his Public Integrity Unit continue to ignore and defend the actions of our corrupt officials. Stringer, Walker, Larsen, Uffer, attorney’s, judges of the San Bernardino Superior Court are involved in this illegal and immoral activity. Derry promised to help this community, so why hasn’t he contacted the FBI? I am not asking for much, just the return of my home and my $350,000.00.
Somebody defrauded you and it cost you $350K? Please share the nature and details of the fraud.
I agree. If a person can’t be trusted to honor the marriage vows, then that person can’t be trusted with the public’s trust.
$350K and still counting.
Good Evening Sharon,
Character is what we build, Reputation is what others think of us. The sexual appetite of any man or woman, is held within the inner most part of thier being. It is only within the discipline or training as a child that we see true character from Virtue and Values. Some just make sure they never get caught. I know there are vamps–male or female, that will tempt a married person, but be assured, they will stand before God. It is the weakness of that individual who forgets, it is only for the moment.
The impact on the injured person transcends its’ damage to others and destroys the family, for there is a price to be paid. Yet in all measures of personality-alertness, diversity, agressiveness, ingenuity; there is punishment for the delinquency of their actions with the ruthlessness of leadership. This kind of behavior soon becomes known to all, as the big reveal. Sooner or later, they are caught. We cannot live a lie.
May we all realize, that we are not invisible and take a stand for a better way of life.
Actually, your looking at this the wrong way. Politics are inherently immoral; it is the art of determining who gets what to garner more personal power. People that are in politics are inherently self serving i.e. – they have to get re-elected so therefore they have to compromise thier own morals to serve thier professional ends. I would argue that immorality in politics increases the probability of lack of morals in a politicians personal life. Would you rather have someone in office that has to put up a front? Perhaps it would be better to get off your ass and look at thier platform and thier political agendas instead of being lazy and trying to derive a weak (at best) conclusion that they will be a good politician based on the perception of a high level of morality in thier personal life; most of these people rarely, if ever give us a voluntary glimpse into that personal life, and for good reason – we may not find them to be as moral as we all thought…
SHARON WHERE DID YOU GOOoooooooo !!!!?????? ME