I deplore the new chant: “Investigate the investigators”. It implies that whenever people find something critical of the president, even if voluminously documented, it could only be because they were politically motivated. In short, they were corrupt.
That’s a reverberating theme now from our administration: all people are corrupt. A judge rules against Trump? He can’t rule fairly because of his national heritage: corrupt. Another politician vies with or disagrees with him? Crooked. Someone repeats an accusation against an ally? Must be a pawn of political foes: corrupt. His formerly lauded lawyer admits to wrongdoing with him? Now he’s a liar and corrupt. Indictments against advisers, closing down his trust, pointing out his business failures: unfair lies by corrupt opponents.
The other current tactic to avoid responsibility is itself logically corrupt. Accused of any wrongdoing? Deflect. What about (Hillary or Bill) Clinton? What about Obama? What about Satan?
The implication: I’m allowed to be corrupt, because everyone is.
Ironically, one of the main messages the Russian trolls were trying to propagate was that democracy doesn’t work because everyone is corrupt. Bannon, too, embraces this canard.
Only, it isn’t true. Most Americans aren’t corrupt. Virtually all of our government employees are dedicated to the goals of good government, not to any party or kingpin; they work hard because they want to better our society, not themselves. The vast majority of Americans do have a moral compass.
They don’t glibly lie, or steal, or pervert our institutions. Democracy can work here.
Even if you assume (which is a far cry from proving) that Clinton (choose either) or Obama did something equally nefarious, it doesn’t excuse current dirty conduct. It isn’t even unfair when people condemn it.
One can’t gain a right to be corrupt by preaching that others are corrupt; it’s just a sorry excuse. Imagine the lack of virtue if one’s “go-to” argument is that he smells only as bad as the people he denigrates as garbage.
If it’s wrong, it’s wrong.
Call it like it is. If someone lies: it’s a lie. If a politician misrepresents: it’s deceit. If a president demands others do wrong, he’s corrupt. If you’re greedy, you’re immoral even if others remain richer than you. A slanderer is a heel, not a hero. People who harm the environment have no aloha ‘aina, even if someone gains a profit from the despoilation. A bully is a brat, not a leader. Inflicting unnecessary misery or fear is cruelty, not strength.
Don’t let the current political claptrap rob you of all sense of honesty and rectitude! Integrity does matter.
•••
Jed Somit is a Kapaa resident.
Indeed more of us need to stand up and decry the morally bankrupt leadership coming out of the White House and Senate. As former FBI Director/former Acting Attny General James Comey put it last week, if you don’t stand up to it you become compromised, complicit and then tainted. Those willing to dismiss the moral failings of this president—the lying, corruption, dishonesty and bigotry, the failure to call out racism and hate—are playing a risky game. Fascist Italy and Weimar Germany in the ‘30’s found nationalist leaders who built strong economies from the ashes of the Great Depression and seduced with the promise of restored greatness, while employing racial stereotyping, scapegoating, fearmongering, hatred of immigrant cultures—and finally military adventuring. It proved a devil’s bargain. If you think it can’t happen here, think Stephen Miller, think John Bolton—and then remember James Mattis is gone. The primary admonishment imparted to physicians is: First, do no harm. In the same way it ought to be requisite that a president first be of moral rectitude, of a moral fiber and with a moral compass aligned so that he/she may first set the country on a path of least harm.
Thank you, Jed. That was very well expressed.
Jed, why is it that we never heard anything from you concerning “the moral compass” when it was pointed at the Republicans but when it swings toward the Democrats it’s a whole different matter. Corruption is corruption, no matter the source and it must be eliminated wherever it is found.
Jed addressed your question right in his letter which you either didn’t read or didn’t comprehend!
Pete, you obviously didn’t read the first sentence of Jed’s article, the part about “Investigate the investigators” and he being against it. Turn about is fair play.
Aloha Jed, what do you call senior police officers gouging unnecessarily overtime pay to bloat their coming retirement checks. It happens everywhere; is that not corrupt?
Stealing from the tax payers while we desperately need Junior police officers on the job pushing traffic through wherever congested.
Besides let’s get to the bottom of this 2 years of worthless news. We should not be afraid to find the beginning cause of all this distraction and corruption.
If Mueller found collusion and obstruction then why don’t he say so. It’s a news farce that all media fomented and the joke is on us.
Charlie
Mueller listed 10 cases of Obstruction of Justice and added that according to the DOJ rules he was operating under, a sitting president could not be indicted.
TRY TO KEEP UP
Aloha Jed, have you ever been falsely accused of something serious, potentially resulting in prison time?
Only for the Judge at trial to discover the accusers were not only behind the false charges but had committed the crimes themself…that’s right one of their own “cracked” under Cross Examination and told the truth.
However that did not resolve a few years of severe stress, defense costs and business loss for this man.
Should this happen to you you better “Investigate the Investigators”…you will never forget what they put you through…!
Charles
Seriously? A duly elected (by a landslide https://brilliantmaps.com/2016-county-election-map/) President of the United States, who won 2,600 counties in the United States to Hillary’s measly 500, is put through 2 years of the most intense investigation known to man and is found “not guilty” of the offense he was charged for. It turns out the entire investigation in the first place was instigated because of a fake, irrelevant and made up dirty “Dossier”, put together and paid for to the tune of $8 million dollars! Money paid to Russians and their clandestine surrogate, by Hillary Clinton, the opposing candidate for President, and falsely used by the most powerful criminal investigation departments of our Country that we now know were controlled by her, the previous President, and the DNC! They mischaracterized the dirty “Dossier” as relevant even though they knew it was fake, as has now been proven through uncovered emails. These so called “investigators”, knew it was a fake BEFORE THEY USED IT AND MARKED IT “VERIFIED” TO A COURT in order to obtain the RIGHT AND POWER to spy and wire tap the opposing candidate and his entire campaign staff! They lied to the FISA Court in order to get dirt before the election to prevent the, now proven innocent and “clean as snow”, opposing candidate from becoming President! And yes Jed, before you start whining and sniveling that Hillary won the “popular vote” we now know that almost half a million voters who voted for Hillary, in California alone, declined to do Jury Duty by claiming to be non citizens! Even Snopes, that bastion of liberal pap marked the Jury Duty research as “unproven” instead of “untrue”. Which makes it true beyond a reasonable doubt! The latest estimates are that, thanks to the Democrats, there are approx. 22 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. now, and even if a fraction of them did as they did in California, Trump won the “honest” popular vote by millions! You’re so full of cool aide Jed that you obviously can’t see the forest from the trees! On top of that! You write a mischaracterized and fake letter to the world proving beyond a shadow of a doubt your jejune blather and capabilities will define you forever. Live with it, and let the honest investigations begin!
Fake news
Enough of the one eye open discussion of politics. Open both eyes and see the lies coming from everywhere. The politicians, the media, the activists, and so on. You never mention Hillary being caught in her lies. But you gladly mention Trump. People lie, regardless of what their political belief or moral compass is at the time. It’s something we all need to try and avoid doing, but humans do it. Sometimes out of the fear of the truth, and sometimes to try and be kind to someone by not letting them know of the truth. Let he who is without a lie cast the first stone. Not a single stone will be cast.
Judging by this letter, most people have a moral compass, but when it comes to people they disagree with, they are perfectly willing to put a finger on the compass’ needle and push it wherever they want it to point.
The electoral college victory came down to a difference of 78,000 votes spread over 3 States. That’s not a landslide, it’s not even a large rock rolling downhill.
So “unproven” means “true” in your little self built Fort Apache these days? What else? Dog means cat, Yes means no (Handy item for a supporter of a self admitted serial molester of women!), the Earth is flat, immorality is moral (Evangelicals are hard at work on that one), and crooked means clever (provided you’re a businessman!)?
The Hunter becomes the Hunted? Too Funny! Lock Her Up!
Very entertaining, politics in the USA at every level is a display of lack of integrity to an embarrassment. Moral compass, we all have one, but not all of us use it correctly.
The Coming Flood!
To add to Pete’s point about the few votes that might have swung the election, there were claims that 75,000 ballots in just the Detroit area that did not have a Presidential Candidate selected.
Jill Stein went to court to suss out why, the Clinton campaign just “blew it off”.
I know many people did not want to have to choose the lesser of two evils, but 75,000? (There were 4.8M votes state wide, which doesn’t tell us how many votes were cast in the Detroit Area. That’s well under 0.1% of the vote showing just how close this election was.)
It gets even more complicated in that the number of ballots did not match the number of voters. This seems to be reliably reports as 782. But Michigan law says that if the numbers don’t match, that precinct cannot be recounted.