I may be “old fashioned” but, as far as I am concerned, integrity is what separates the good guys from the bad ones.
Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. It has been my pleasure to have known many people of integrity. Their word is their bond, to use an old phrase. In other words, if they make a promise, they keep it; if you loan them money, they will pay you back.
In addition, individuals of high integrity don’t play games with facts. If a person tells you “You can take that to the bank!”, it’s supposed to mean that what was said is the absolute truth and can be verified by a third party source. Someone with a reputation for integrity doesn’t have to utter that reassurance: it’s a given.
Integrity seems to have fallen from favor in recent times. It has become fashionable for many people to make promises that they never intend to keep and to tell so many lies that they confuse even themselves. Some individuals will tell a lie when the truth would serve them better. Our current President seems to be afflicted with this malady.
And, in today’s society, it doesn’t seem to matter. It’s a national sickness.
Lack of moral character is pervasive, from the average guy right up the food chain, in personal and business matters. People lie on credit applications, cheat on their taxes, are unfaithful to their spouses, etc. In recent years, society’s take on such matters seems to be that it’s acceptable… as long as you don’t get caught.
We have a President who is a pathological liar. Period. What does his behavior teach the young people in this country?
Is teaching children to lie and cheat part of the goal to “Make America Great Again”?
When it’s acceptable in society to lie, cheat, and do immoral acts, can we really call that society…civilized?
Laws exist in the civilized world to regulate immoral behavior, and the “Rule of Law” is defined as the “restriction of the arbitrary exercise of power by subordinating it to well-defined and established laws”. That means that everyone in society, from pauper to King, is supposed to be bound by the same set of laws.
Call me a Boy Scout, but I have respect for the Rule of Law: I do my best to live in an honest manner, and I hope that I have instilled this aspect of character in my children.
How many like-minded citizens are left in the United States? Quite a few, I’m sure, but my feeling is that the number is diminishing at a rapid rate.
The latest news is all about the “Manafort” trial. It is the first trial of the so-called RussiaGate affair, being prosecuted by ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller. Many other individuals who broke the law in regard to this matter have taken plea agreements and some of these scoundrels have agreed to testify on behalf of the prosecution.
Without going into great detail, the current case against Paul Manafort seems to be focused on his slimy business dealings, his creative bookkeeping, and tax evasion schemes to hide tens of millions of dollars from the I.R.S. “So what?”, you might say. “That goes on everyday in business.” (Yeah, but it’s lying and cheating, isn’t it? But, we citizens expect it, and, so, condone it.)
Well, in this case it is significant because the high-flying, international political consultant Paul Manafort was, back in 2016, the head honcho of the Donald Trump for President Campaign Committee.
Manafort was reluctantly relieved of this position by Mr. Trump, after the Republican nomination was secured, because the press became aware of his significant political and business ties to the Russian government. Trump was pissed, claimed there was nothing to the flap, called it a “witch hunt”, etc. FAKE NEWS he tweeted at the time.
(Of course, later, as the facts became known, the now-President stated that Manafort had relatively little to do with his campaign; he hardly knew the guy!)
The current Manafort trial is about money-laundering and tax evasion, something that the F.B.I is expert at uncovering. This trial is a precursor to additional trials later in the year regarding Mr. Manafort’s failure to register as an agent of a foreign country and some of his activities on behalf of foreign countries while he was leading the Trump campaign. Federal law prohibits such things.
It appears, from the early going of the trial, that Paul Manafort and his associates would do, and actually did, just about anything under the sun for gobs of money. The character of this guy, and his lack of integrity, must have been well-known to Donald Trump, who personally hired him and entrusted to him his entire campaign operation and his prospects for being elected.
And, Manafort’s chief assistant, Rick Gates, who was a key player in the Trump election machine right up to the Inaugural, is now being grilled by the Special Prosecutor. Gates is turning out to be every bit as slimy as Manafort, with money laundering, tax evasion, marital affairs, embezzlement, and other evil deeds to his credit. Whoa, Nellie!
Who knows where this RussiaGate thing is going?
It appears that the Special Prosecutor is methodically putting his grand case together by knocking off the small fry, getting convictions against them for various crimes, in the hopes that they will then have motive to spill their guts about the “big picture”. This is how the F.B.I. successfully prosecuted the Mafia.
Of course, the RussiaGate scandal involves much more than tax evasion, money laundering, and slimy businessmen. There is the fact that the 2016 election was manipulated by Russia-sponsored hackers, there are the subsequent policy changes favorable to Russian interests, and there is the peculiar, fawning behavior that candidate, and then President, Trump has exhibited toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In addition, credible news reports now suggest that Russian money flowed to the Trump campaign after being laundered through the National Rifle Association. That trial should be enlightening.
It is obvious that the Russians wanted Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton, elected President of the United States, and they took measures to insure that outcome. Vladimir Putin has publicly admitted this at his recent summit with President Trump.
The big question in all of this, which hopefully will be answered by the Mueller investigation, is: Was the Trump Campaign working hand in hand with the Russians?
If so, a number of Federal laws were violated, not to mention the fact that a guy was elected President of the United States with covert Russian assistance! Both Donald Trumps, Senior and Junior, are sweating.
Going back to the subject of integrity, it is amazing how many political celebrities (of both parties!) lack that honorable ingredient. As the politics of the nation has become more and more partisan, lying, cheating, and dirty tricks have become the norm, rather than the exception. It’s no wonder that the public can’t figure out what is up or down, what is the truth, and who said what to whom.
We’ve all been inundated with so many silly lies that we’ve become numb to it all…a spectacular lie is not even news anymore, and corruption, in the business and political spheres, is…expected.
The Washington D.C. “swamp” that candidate Trump harangued about at rally after rally during the campaign has gotten worse, rather than better, during the past few years. Scandal after scandal have beset the Trump Administration.
Not to pick on Donald Trump and his cronies; this stuff has been going on in Washington D.C. for a long time. Had Hillary Clinton won the election, a different crew of crooked, lying, corrupt individuals would have sidled up to the government trough and eaten their fill.
That’s the dilemma that faces the electorate: dishonesty and greed have become so commonplace (and, accepted?) that it doesn’t seem to matter who we vote for…corruption is going to happen anyway.
Where is Abe Lincoln when we need him?
No wonder so many Third World countries bristle when America tries to shove democracy down their throats; it doesn’t even work that well in the United States!