What Happened to Honor?
Where honor was once the norm in our elected officials and reprobates were few, it seems the exact opposite is the current state of affairs. No pun intended.
OK, I exaggerate… but not much.
Given the highly competitive nature of politics and the continual digression into “win at all costs”, it is no wonder that fewer men and women of honor even care to engage in that battle. Why would anyone subject themselves to such scrutiny, stress, and sheer loss of privacy? The gratifying sense of “giving back” seems to no longer be enough in a realm where “what’s in it for me” prevails. I find it hard to blame the real winners in our society who might be inclined to represent us for not doing so… the risk/reward ratio is out of balance.
So, that means we’re not getting the best and the brightest, the most able leaders. OK, that’s a generalization… there are still a FEW good representatives. But, on the whole, I’m of the opinion that we are getting a second tier of participants in the process. Sad to say, this becomes something of a downward spiral as they are more likely to do election battle with less integrity, and the entire process gets uglier and uglier.
I suppose it’s like the pendulum swaying far in one direction before it loses momentum and comes back toward a balance. My fear is that serious damage… perhaps even unrepairable harm… will be done to our political system before the modern-day scoundrels are recognized for what they are and voted out of office.
