Does the character of our elected representatives matter to the voters who elect them to office?
Joe Perticone wrote on The Bulwark on 01/14/25 about the senate cabinet hearings:
Americans have a lot of disdain for the way Congress works. They would do well to think about the character of the individuals they elected to send to Washington, because those are the people who have turned the legislative branch into what it is today: an aging, cynical, and nakedly partisan institution without any interest in due diligence.
A friend of mine sent me an email two days ago in which he wrote that politics is ALWAYS a dirty business. I understand his cynicism and demoralization. His comment started me thinking about why are our politics is a “dirty” business?
It’s because getting dirty works. It rewards the people who do the dirt. These folks with poor character who play dirty for some reason are attractive to American voters and they choose them to represent them. Of maybe the American voter is just bad at judging character or maybe a little of both.
If our elected representatives are people of poor character who play dirty, it makes an observer question who are these people that choose them to represent them when they vote? Are they uninformed voters, or like their representatives to play dirty as long as they win, or just team players who vote for their team no matter their morals and character, or maybe a little bit of all three and other factors as well.
What if when politicians make poor decisions based on ulterior motives and immoral choices, the people who voted for them were held accountable for giving them the power to do their dirty things that harm people and the country?
If a company hires employees who do immoral, illegal, and abusive things, their managers and executives are held accountable for employing these people with civil and sometimes criminal law suits for damages.
Supposing voters where held liable for voting for and electing representatives who wind up doing immoral and unsavory thing with the power these voters gave them?
We find out today from the release of Jack Smith’s Special Counsel report that Donald Trump fomented an insurrection and stole top secret documents for which he should be prosecuted,and probably would be found guilty because the evidence is so clear cut if he didn’t have special immunity which the Supreme court gave him since he was re-elected as President. The Supreme Court has ruled that he is above the law. America has a king, tyrant, dictator whatever you want to call him because he is not an ordinary American who is bound by the rule of laws. Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and his supporters would still vote for him and he could get away with it just like he said as a billionaire celebrity he can sexually assault women with impunity. Sadly, he is right.
Mitch McConnell, when he was the Senate leader of the Republicans, said he would not vote for impeachment because he thought Trump’s presidency should be left up to the voters, and so it was, and the voters voted for a convicted felon with other felony accounts pending which will now not be prosecuted as their chief executive. What does this say about the character and moral compass of the American voters?
And so perhaps the moral of the story is that the American voter get what they deserve. If the American voter is lacking character and a moral compass they will choose representatives like themselves that they feel comfortable with.
Voters voted for Trump and immoral politicians for many reasons, but in general it may be accurate to say that the people they choose to represent them are mirror images of themselves. We can’t blame the politicians who play dirty and are immoral but the people who elected them to play the way they do.
Questions:
Who are these voters?
What are they thinking?
Do they realize what they’ve done?
Do they have any buyer’s remorse?
Are they willing to admit their mistake and look for better ways to find people to represent them if we are going to continue as a representative democracy? Or don’t they care about a representative democracy that values justice, wisdom, and doing the right thing?
What are the factors that contribute to the moral compass of American voters and the people they choose to represent them so out of whack?
Does the moral compass of American voters need to be recalibrated and if so how?