CANDIDATE CHARACTERISTICS-CHARACTER
(Third in a series)
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
Abraham Lincoln
“The respect that leadership must have requires that one’s ethics be without question. A leader not only stays above the line between right and wrong, he stays well clear of the gray areas.”
G. Alan Bernard
President, Mid Park, Inc.
When I wrote my article on what to look for in a city council candidate, I came up with seven basic, desirable attributes, one of which was good character. Then I said I would write a full article on each of the attributes. What was I thinking? Volumes have been written on what constitutes an admirable character. Whole college courses are offered on the subject of ethics. Can I do the subject justice in this relatively short article? Does anyone care?
Well, we’d better care. Lack of character and ethical misconduct on the part of our leaders may be the biggest reason why are country is in the shape its in. It certainly is the main reason for people considering our elected officials to be lower than used car salesmen as a class. While we cannot condone some of the acts of our leaders, the real fault lies with a lazy electorate that is unwilling or unable to take the time and effort to get to know the candidates and judge them on the character issue before they vote for them.
Every day we read about the antics of Hillsboro County Commissioner White, how our former State Senate Leader Sansome is doing with his appeals or how a former State Republican Party Chairman is handling the rigors of doing time. Remember, these guys worked their way up the ladder of success and unless a Tiger changes its spots, they probably lied, cheated and stole their way all the way up the ladder. Didn’t anybody notice? Didn’t anybody care…or dare to blow the whistle. Didn’t some voters get fed up and fight to defeat them somewhere along the way and where was the press all this time?
Right here in Gulfport we have had ethical issues come up in recent City Council elections. One Council Candidate was found to have violated two professional codes of conduct and paid a fine. Our Mayor was investigated by the State Ethics Commission concerning his being an officer of a non-profit corporation that had large contracts with the city and there was a finding of “Probable Cause,” but because the Commission had neither the mandate nor the resources, the case was taken no further. Somehow, the Mayor convinced the then Council that he was “vindicated” and got them to vote to pay his legal expenses. Doesn’t anybody care? Both candidates got elected and those who brought the charges have been made out to be the bad guys.
Maybe the flood of unethical and illegal conduct by public officials is simply a reflection of a generally unethical public? I choose to believe that this is not so. I believe that most of the public is ill informed by a passive or biased press, is disconnected from the political process and is too lazy to fulfill the obligations of an “informed electorate.” We, as voters, not only need to be up on the issues, but need to find out all we can about what makes our candidates tick. We need to read all we can about them, pro and con, pound every website with questions and get out to candidates forums and ask some hard questions before we vote.
Analyzing character and ethical conduct are the subjects of this article. Before we start we need to agree that character and ethical conduct are determined by what people do, not what they say. Many candidates are very glib and are terrific communicators, just like that used car salesman. When you want to believe them, remember Richard Nixon when he famously said, “I am not a crook.” It’s OK to be a little cynical in asking questions until the candidate shows who he or she really is.
When we use the word character, what do we mean? In digging through several web sites, the best and simplest list of the components of character required for leadership are the following:
- Trustworthiness-Does the candidate tell the truth, keep promises, fulfill obligations?
- Respect-Does the candidate practice the Golden Rule? More simply, does the candidate answer phone calls or e-mails?
- Responsibility-Is the candidate in control of his/her emotions? Does the candidate tend to pass the buck and not own up to his/her actions? Is the candidate an ideologue that will take shortcuts to achieve an end regardless of the means. Would the candidate make a sacred vote without knowing what he or she is voting for?
- Fairness-Does the candidate play by the rules? Does he/she appear to be evenhanded? (Fair and nice are two highly subjective words, but you know what I mean when I say a person is fair.)
- Caring/Kindness-How does the candidate treat his/her employees and associates? Does he/she inspire long term loyalty in others?
- Citizenship-Is the candidate unabashedly patriotic? (I don’t mean unquestioningly patriotic.) Does the candidate appear to have a sense of community? Does the candidate volunteer for or financially support civic causes?
While the above list may be helpful, it certainly doesn’t thoroughly define the word character. The candidate’s values, for example, are not explored. As was previously stated, the subject is way too big for this short article, so we will be satisfied if voters consider at least the six components listed.
Voters should thoroughly vet a candidate’s character by delving into the candidate’s history. There is so much information about a candidate on the internet, including court documents, that a fair picture can be developed by this source alone. Local and regional news media usually have a “morgue” of past articles that are readily available to the public. Study the candidate’s literature. See if it matches up with what you have learned.
Charges of malfeasance leveled by a competitor or claims of past successes claimed by the candidate should be carefully confirmed from a reliable source.
Once upon a time in a land that now seems far, far away, your local media used to do this job for you and to a certain extent you could rely on the information published. Unfortunately that is no longer true in a day when opinion masquerades as fact in local newspapers, where a shrinking number of ill trained reporters are unable to do their jobs and where publishers seem to have a heavy bias. Locally, the Gabber appears to want to maintain the status quo and is sometimes embarrassing by their obvious bias toward one or two members of the council. The St. Petersburg Times consistently comes down on the side of Liberal or Progressive issues and candidates.
Another way to evaluate a candidate’s character is to get up off the sofa and attend neighborhood meetings with candidates and local candidate’s forums. Direct question and answer opportunities can be most enlightening. Using the “Comments” section on a candidate’s website is another way to get answers to questions of character. This method has the weakness of not knowing if the answers were produced by the candidate or by a campaign helper.
In an effort to assist in the candidate evaluation process, we will try to come up with a series of questions and a format for rating one candidate with another on all seven of the desirable characteristics, including character and ethics at the end of this series.
One reader comment on this series felt that trying to get voters to seriously evaluate candidates was futile and that most people voted without much thought or without much knowledge about who they voted for. While we agree that this has probably been true for a long time, many citizens are expressing frustration and fear about the low state of our government and might begin to assume their responsibility for this sad state of affairs.
When a person tosses their hat in the ring and asks for a vote so that they can seriously affect the lives of a lot of people, they automatically open themselves up to very critical scrutiny and can expect to be judged on a higher standard than in normal life. We as voters should not be embarrassed to snoop and ask hard questions of candidates.
We should also not be rushed into casting our vote on an early ballot by voting officials who are trying to save money or candidates who want to capture our vote before all the facts of the election are in. Casting an early vote benefits no one but the government and the candidate. How would you feel if you cast a vote for someone on an early ballot who later was found to have committed some act that disqualified them from holding public office? This is one case where it is better to wait until the last moment.
If you don’t want an elected official to vote on issues they know nothing about, then you as a voter must gather all the facts before you vote, especially on the matter of character the most important one of the seven desirable attributes of a candidate.