If I Were President - Part 4 - Ethical Conduct

"The people running our government are liars and cannot be trusted."



One of the key things I've learned as a blogger and political activist, having been astute and aware of the goings on in Washington, and incessantly craving any and all news & opinion from both progressive and conservative sources, is that corruption is utterly rampant in our government. I've addressed it in several other articles in my blog, particularly under the guise of campaign finance. But there's more, much more to bring to light.

There's more to bring to light, because unethical behavior is much more than just corruption. Corruption implies some flow of money for political favors, but ethical behavior, particularly in our elected representatives, is paramount to a working democracy. Ethical behavior is a requirement for trust & integrity. Ethical behavior in our elected officials implies that they're making decisions and advocating for the betterment of their constituency, not themselves.


The Lying

At the root of ethical behavior is that of telling the truth. This is where I have a huge problem with the current administration. Every day, more and more, the reality is reinforced, that the people in the Bush Administration (and I do mean ALL of them) simply do not tell the truth... at all. Sometimes it's proven immediately, and sometimes it takes a while, but by and large, EVERYTHING spewing out of the pie-holes of these assholes is false. And I don't just mean un-true... I mean KNOWINGLY false.

Just this week, after hearing reinforcement of the fact that Bush himself was an integral player in the classified intelligence leaks of 2003 (i.e. the attacks on Joseph Wilson & Valerie Plame), we're hearing that the WMD's the Bushies were claiming to have found in Iraq, weren't even close to being weapons of any kind. Let's revisit....

Yes, we know that there were no WMD's found in Iraq, even though many ignorant sheeple still think there were. They did find however, some trucks that the Bush Administration was claiming to be mobile weapons labs. The fact is, even AFTER these trucks were discovered to be anything but weaponry, the Bush Administration continued to purport that they were mobile weapons labs and that we finally found the WMDs!

This is just one more straw in an already broken camel's back to remind us that the people running our government are liars and cannot be trusted. There are whole volumes dedicated to the subject such as Al Franken's "The Truth (with Jokes)" & "Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them", David Corn's "The Lies of George W. Bush", and Eric Alterman & Mark J. Green's "The Book on Bush: How George W. (mis)leads America". I have read all of these and highly, highly recommend each of them.

In my opinion, nothing said by any of these neo-cons can be accepted as either true or honest. In fact, I would go so far as to say that with anything they claim, we should assume the opposite.


So Here's My Point...

The people we (s)elect to govern us must be held accountable to the highest ethical standards. These are the people who will make so many critical decisions in our proxy. These are the people who allocate our tax dollars for the betterment of our country, our environment, and everything in between. These are the people who speak for us to neighboring and far-away nations. These are the people whose actions today will shape our future.

These people should be a model of ethical behavior. As our leaders they should be setting an example. They should be epitome of integrity. But they're not. Instead, they are lying, conniving, reckless, selfish, evil, manipulative, imperialistic bastards. The poll numbers tell a very interesting story... the people see right through them.

If I were president, I would hold the highest regard for integrity & ethical behavior. I would demand honesty. I would tell the truth and expect nothing less than that from EVERYONE in my administration.