Integrity

Peggy Noonan had this to say about integrity and presidential candidates:

In a president, character is everything. A president doesn't have to be brilliant; Harry Truman wasn't brilliant, and he helped save Western Europe from Stalin. He doesn't have to be clever; you can hire clever. White Houses are always full of quick-witted people with ready advice on how to flip a senator or implement a strategy. You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks.

But you can't buy courage and decency, you can't rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those things with him. If he does, they will give meaning and animation to the great practical requirement of the presidency: He must know why he's there and what he wants to do. He has to have thought it through. He needs to have, in that much maligned word, but a good one nontheless, a vision of the future he wishes to create. This is a function of thinking, of the mind, the brain.

The most recent allegations against Donald Trump--unwanted sexual advances, groping, kissing, etc.--is another piece of evidence in the case against Donald Trump's presidency. It's a testament to that John Wooden quote, “The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.” Though I am not sure if Trump cared if anyone was watching. He does and says what he wants, and then denies and disavows anyone who claims otherwise.

Hillary Clinton isn't much better. She's surrounded herself with vile anti-Catholic advisors who denigrate people of faith who don't fit into their nicely captured vision of what constitutes decency:

Pointing to a magazine article noting that conservative media titan Rupert Murdoch was raising his children as Catholics, Halpin wrote, "Many of the most powerful elements of the conservative movement are all Catholic (many converts) ...they must be attracted to the systematic thought and [severely] backwards gender relations."

Palmieri wrote back, "I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn't understand if they became evangelicals."

These advisors also deny, distract, and ignore their words in the public square. And the media lets them get away with it. And these advisors are truly Hillary's voice, coaching her through ever single public utterance she makes, even going so far as to screen and receive questions in advance to script her out fully. I don't think for one minute she'd be horrified by these sentiments.

These are the times that try men's souls, they say. All of these truisms about politics--lesser of two evils, damned if you do, etc. seem even more true this year.

I don't know how we'll emerge from this. Maybe we'll remember that this exceptional country we are proud to call home is still our last, best hope, and perhaps we'll resume the fight to steer us away from a thousand days or years or darkness. Or maybe we'll sink into the quagmire and allow this pervasive bitterness to subsume us. Maybe we'll forgive, and we'll reconcile, and the civil war the right is fighting we'll end in some kind of new and better union. It'll be interesting to see where we go in a year.

But for many, all integrity has been lost this year. And I understand all of those arguments about the rural/urban divide, the haves and have-nots. I understand that many are angry and feel ignored. But I don't understand how our leaders aren't better, aren't higher, aren't more concerned about being decent and having that moral sense. You don't need to be "decent" to be a good president. You do need to have integrity, though, to be a leader that others admire and want to follow. We do not have that today with Trump and Clinton.