Honestly!

One of the most distasteful acts of the political process is the act of distorting the truth. The process of running for any office is basically a relationship between the voter and the candidate. One should feel comfortable when casting their vote for someone they are empowering with a leadership position. The easiest way to damage a relationship, any relationship, is to distort or withhold the truth. Yet it seems like that issue has become an acceptable part of politics. I really don't understand why a candidate or elected official would think that a voter would entrust them with the responsibility of office when they are intellectually dishonest with the voting public. Could it be that they feel the voters are that misinformed, or that easily deceived?

How does one keep a straight face and announce to the public skewed unemployment numbers? How does one denounce another candidate's record while knowing the actions they are renouncing them for occurred while that individual was no longer involved with the company in question? How does one claim job growth knowing that they neglected to include job loss during that same period? I mean really, to claim that you created 10 bazillion jobs when you neglect to mention that 12 bazillion people lost their jobs during the same period of time is intellectually dishonest. Yet politicians seem to think they get away with this foolishness. Do they really think we are so undereducated that we can't tell the difference between net and gross? Maybe I'm self deceived, but that's not complicated math, especially when a great deal of America is out of work. To claim lower unemployment numbers because you juggled the amount of people in the work force isn't making the unemployed worker feel any better about our economy, or their own personal situation. We have a sense of reality. Then there are candidates who claim to be anti government spending, yet their record reflects they place pork projects in bills, promote the passage of the bills, then once the passage is assured vote nay as if that absolves them of increased government spending. The whole process is distasteful for anyone who yearns for truth in leadership.

Have we evolved to a society where leadership cannot stand on their record? Is it possible to admit to the public that perhaps as a politician your human and thereby capable of making a mistake or two? How difficult is it to confess a policy didn't work, but in the failure process something was learned to move us forward in the right direction? Rather, we get buffaloed with smoke and mirrors, denial, and deception. It's as if leadership has been hijacked by "not me" and "I don't know!" How does one expect to defend the truth when it's absent from their life?

America yearns for leadership that accepts responsibility, admits failure, exudes character, and integrity. Without it we are adrift on a sea of dung, and quite frankly it stinks! I wouldn't allow the current crop of politicians the responsibility of watching my dog, let alone running this great nation. What we accept, we cannot change. Why is it we have to hold our nose when we pull the voting lever? Could the finger be pointed toward the moral decline of our society?

God Bless!
Capt. Bill