American presidential values

The American people, at large, have demonstrated that we do not have a value for holding our President to a high moral or ethical standard in their personal or public life.  In this day and age, almost anything goes.  Many use specific personal incidents as fuel for their fires, depending on which candidate we are supporting or criticizing.  That is just smoke.  When the tables are turned, and their candidate is winning, the same or comparable behavior gets a huge pass and all of a sudden, it isn’t that big of a deal any longer.  This happens, as I see it, almost equally on both sides of the political aisle.  I say, “stop acting like you are all concerned about the person who was elected and what they may have done in their personal life.”  We know better.  It doesn’t play the same both ways. Check it out: 

1. At least 20 presidents have had extra marital, same sex and opposite sex affairs, and likely many more. These are just the ones that are pretty widely publicized. One president is said to have fathered 15 illegitimate children with slaves, and this is not Thomas Jefferson. He has his own story.

2. There have been several scandals in the White House, from Watergate to Monika Lewinsky to Marilyn Monroe, to the Iran-Contra affair, and so on. 

3. There have been many incidents of corruption and blatant dishonesty. Grant and Harding are perhaps top of the heap when it comes to corrupt politicians.

4. Cover-ups! This is short article, not an encyclopedia. Some involving merely “spinning” the facts to protect the president and the office. Some are more sinister, and the facts are illusive. We will never know all that goes on, and has gone on behind closed doors of the White House occupants.

My point:  When you act all enraged and appalled at what a president or presidential candidate has done, such as Donald Trump, both Clintons, Richard Nixon, JFK, LBJ, etc., don’t expect us to be all concerned with you.  Your party’s president or presidential candidate has just as many incidents as the one you are currently attacking.

In America we have some pet issues that are important to us and generate much emotion. Namely: abortion, sexual orientation issues, environment and global warming issues, women’s rights, immigration, gun control, and a few others.  Lots of opinions and lots of bantering on these kinds of issues.  We act like they matter, when in fact they are small issues to Americans. This is demonstrated by how we accept flaws in our candidate, and we crucify the same flaws in our opponents.  We will happily look the other way if our man, or woman gets elected.  We have proven that over the past 50 years, personal integrity, morals and ethics count for next to nothing…no debate!

There are really only two big issues that concern Americans.  They are national security and the economy.  That’s it.  What we really want is a president who is successful in these two arenas.  Everything else is just so much rhetoric.  We can act like the personal and public lives or our candidates and presidents matter, but our lack of consistently applying our, so called, values across the board betrays us.