When I was a kid, like most kids I managed to tell a lie when I knew I had done something I wasn’t supposed to and was trying to avoid the consequences. Of course I got caught – and got both the lecture and punishment I deserved.
I recall the ninth of the Ten Commandments from my youthful Bible classes as “Thou shall not bear false witness,” and that this is generally interpreted as “do not lie.” While it’s likely that all of us tell a lie from time to time, clearly one of the things that defines integrity and ethical behavior is always striving to tell the truth.
Throughout our society we have all sorts of codes of ethics that are designed to both inspire us to high levels of integrity and alternatively warn us of the consequences when we are not honest. There are codes of ethics in many businesses, the honor code in military institutions, academic honesty codes at schools and many more.
As a parent, teacher and later on manager in a not-for-profit organization, I know the importance of integrity: The quality of being honest, truthful and having strong moral principles. For most of us, we strive to achieve this state of integrity in our work, families and communities. We choose to be examples to those who look up to us.
Leading by example is one tenet of a responsible parent, educator, member of the clergy and leader in a community. We expect integrity from them. When such people fail to meet the test of integrity, we lose our respect, sometimes relieve them of their duties and responsibilities, and, if the action is egregious, seek to punish them.
Over the many years I’ve written these opinion pieces for the Monitor, I have strived always to be honest, accurate, factual. I’ve often gone back and fact-checked my own writing to be sure I had it right, and made changes when I found my understanding was not entirely correct. Like most people who value their reputations, be they business people, public servants, clergy, educators, etc., integrity matters a lot to me. I know that if I lied, distorted the facts or was intentionally inaccurate, it would come back to haunt me.
Thus, I find myself especially disturbed when someone of major public stature, and a potential leader of our nation, fails to meet the basic test of integrity. I expect true leaders to strive to have the highest integrity. They may not always succeed. As a recent New Yorker article pointed out, presidents do occasionally tell lies, with Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush among them. But they do not do so regularly, consistently and with impunity.
Sure, during political campaigns, politicians will often stretch the truth or promise things they can’t deliver. But rarely do they insult their own integrity with outright lies. While I had major disagreements with the policies and goals of John McCain and Mitt Romney, I never doubted their basic integrity.
But, in the case of Donald Trump, I find the candidate almost entirely lacking in integrity.
The New Yorker series titled “Donald Trump and the Truth” said it better than I can: “But sometimes there really is something new under the political sun. Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, does not so much struggle with the truth as strangle it altogether. He lies to avoid. He lies to inflame. He lies to promote and to preen. Sometimes he seems to lie just for the hell of it. He traffics in conspiracy theories that he cannot possibly believe and in grotesque promises that he cannot possibly fulfill. When found out, he changes the subject – or lies larger.”
PolitiFact rates Trumps statements as Pants on Fire, False or Mostly false 70 percent of the time. Further, Trump’s business practices, as described in numerous credible stories, have been frequently unethical and deceitful. I recall a recent PBS interview with a group of both Trump supporters and opponents when one small-businessman who contracted with Trump’s companies said “the word on the street is get paid up front if you want to be paid,” because his companies were well known for stiffing their contractors.
I am appalled that even a modest percentage of decent, truthful people in America, especially parents trying to teach their children good values, could imagine such a man as the chief executive and leader of a great nation that is based on virtuous principles. What kind of role model is this man for our children, let alone our nation?
Say what you will about the mistakes Hillary Clinton has made over a 40-year career in public service and politics, but what she has done is no more or less egregious than many past presidents. Donald Trump offends my sense of decency, fairness, honesty, morality and integrity in more ways than I can count.
I would not hire a man with his reputation as my car mechanic or buy a used car from him, let alone hire him to run the government of the greatest nation on Earth.
(Paul Doscher lives in Weare.)