Time for Character Guardrails for U.S. Politicians
Congress, President, and SCOTUS
There are now good and obvious reasons for Congress to design character guardrails starting with some for themselves. There is no more urgent work for them. Our democracy is being turned into an autocracy or something like it right before our eyes. At least partially that is because there are no character standards for top government positions in the U.S!
Such standards used to be unnecessary. But now as our top leadership reneges on their core responsibility, to govern with reason, knowledge, integrity, consultation, class, justice, and good international responsibility sense, work to design standards for serving in POTUS, SCOTUS, and Congress are vital to our future existence as a major world power.
The identity drift of the U.S. government has just turned into an avalanche that destroys lives and treasured traditions of comity, collaboration, and dedication to serving world and national citizens. It could now flow several ways as it clarifies itself. Considered set for over 200 years as a democratic or constitutional republic, it is alarming many citizens by being guided to become an oligarchy (government by a few), or a dictatorship (government by one), or a plutocracy (government by the rich) or even a kleptocracy (government that gradually steals from the poor to benefit the rich). All of these are viewable as possibilities already, along with corpocracy (government by business leaders and corporate interests). Even more likely is a continued drift to pluto-democracy, (plutocracy masquerading as democracy).
Most recently the drift seems to be rapidly turning into a coup. Into what form of government is not yet clear, but the pace of change is jolting.
So far, there seems to be inadequate public will, individual fortitude, initiative, knowledge, or plain guts to stop this slide away from the imperfect democracy we have been since the U.S. founding in the 18th century. As Lincoln touted, the great experiment of a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” is being sacrificed on the altar of greed and power hunger as we watch.
We seem far from evolving into a humanocracy that many of us quietly yearn for (government by making decisions based on what is best for human beings and the human race, rather than increasing individual wealth, consolidating power, or other political advantage). At least a few of us citizens perpetually nurture solid hopes for evolution to move that way more quickly than evolution usually does.
This set of Substack essays includes a belief that even more important than the style or form of government is the character of the person, small group, or other personal entity that governs. A benign dictator, kindly king, or dedicated collection of successful business leaders could be accepted as top leaders if they were persistent in their focus on improving people’s lives. So far, however, in this administration, despite rhetoric about improving efficiency, only slash and burn decisions seem to be the order of the day.
History has shown a seemingly inevitable drift of top leadership towards greed of the clever that eventually comes to revolution of the masses, after long periods of exploitation of the common person.
Most recently, that dearth of character has been so bold that even governing party members have seemingly been tempted to do what they can to impede the storm. But it takes quite a bit of fortitude to act, and few have found it yet.
What keeps it murky so far is that the cover of top leaders’ consolidation of power for its own sake and the capital it can gain for themselves is that their efforts to rein in waste and fraud have merit. There is waste and fraud. It may not be more than the normal inefficiencies and skullduggery of humans trying to improve their material position in a partially evolved world. But it presents itself as a legitimate effort and so serves well as a temporary distraction from the intended disruption of everything functional from which they hope to “save the world”.
As we’ve seen before, there are times when character is best recognized by its lack. Where for example, is any class or bearing in a top leader who uses his assistant to gang up on a war hero head of state to embarrass him on national TV? Where is any humility to acknowledge that they know nothing much and understand less, about how the world of international politics could work to improve lives everywhere? Where is the heart for hundreds of lives donated for a European country’s freedom struggling for years to keep it at enormous personal and family costs? Where is any sense of what is just among people, let alone mercy and compassion?
We citizens need character guardrails for top leaders, now. It is possible. The book Assessing the Character of Candidates for National Political Office shows how. More next week about this. Members of Congress need to be discussing such standards as we speak.
Gordon J Hilsman can be reached at ghilsman@gmail.com.