Character Matters (or At Least It Should)
Yesterday, a political analyst posted on social media that we need to codify ALL the norms that Donald Trump has broken these past few years, in order to ensure that we never have a president or any public official as corrupt or toxic as he has been the past several years. And today, a U.S. Senator advocated on social media for removal of the pardon power from the U.S. Constitution because Trump is using it as a tool for his criminal enterprise.
My first thought to both of these was: No, the priority really should be — how do we elect leaders, and especially a president, who has the appropriate character for the job?
Throughout the Trump presidency, the phrase “Character Counts” has stuck in my mind. A few years back, my son’s middle school implemented the “Character Counts” program which teaches that the core ethical values of character are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. These values are to be taught and instilled throughout the climate of the school to create a culture of kindness and a safe learning environment. So, for example, the school principal would “catch” a student doing something kind for someone else or for the community (like helping a classmate or picking up trash on the school grounds) and reward them with public acknowledgement of their good deed.
If only we adults, and especially all elected public officials, would exemplify those values!
Instead, right now, we have too many in positions of power who exploit those positions for their own benefit, not for the benefit of their constituents and our community/society as a whole. As we have seen with Trump, there is no way to effectively contain every selfish and shameless impulse of those in power who lack the Character Counts values. It would be like whack-a-mole; you plug one hole, and inevitably those who lack morals and shame will find a way around it.
Without the Character Counts values, a leader would ignore the spirit if not the letter of the law and dare others to challenge him or her. As we have seen with Trump, he ignores rules. Remember all the talk about emoluments early in his presidency? Well, emoluments is also a provision in the Constitution (as a prohibition), but Trump and his enablers have conveniently ignored that.
Or look at Trump’s record (thus far) of pardons. Traditionally (in fact, for 125 years), persons seeking presidential pardons would apply through the Department of Justice which has a specific department set up to examine and make recommendations based on these requests. The Pardon Attorney Office solicits views of the prosecuting attorney and judge and is to consider, among other factors, the individual’s post-conviction “character” and whether or not the individual has accepted responsibility for their criminal conduct. But, of course, the recent high-profile pardons we hear the most about (Manafort, Flynn, Stone, etc.) did not go through the pardon office, but rather Trump made the decision as president to reward his friends and allies. To be sure, other presidents have not always followed the formal pardon process, but they have done so on a much more limited basis than Trump has.
How have we gotten to this point where it seems we have abandoned the ideal of being judged, as the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. once said, by the content of our character? If we continue to elect public officials who do not believe “character counts,” then we will have a culture of corruption.
This is not to say that no reforms should be made in the wake of this presidency. There are many good ideas for changes that could curb the very worst tendencies of someone like Trump.
For example, in the case of the pardon power, Congress could pass legislation making it clear that it would be a crime for the president to engage in a quid pro quo or obstruction of justice scheme for the pardon.
And New York University Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice convened a group in 2018 known as the National Task Force on Rule of Law and Democracy. This task force issued two reports with a number of recommendations to shore up our legal system and democracy, ranging from modernizing financial disclosure requirements for government officials, to protocols for adherence to scientific integrity standards.
These reforms are important and necessary but not sufficient if we have public officials who lack the Character Counts values. Right now, it seems that almost all Congressional Republicans have abdicated those values to those of the lawless Trump regime, and because Democrats hold a razor slim majority in the House of Representatives and at most (hopefully after the Georgia runoff elections in January) in the Senate, it is not clear how many of these reforms on the national level would be made.
In spite of this, I am heartened by the people who are stepping up to run for office in the past few years. In addition to recently-elected local officials whom I greatly admire, there are some on the national level that give me hope that indeed, character does still matter. Representative Katie Porter (CA-45) comes to mind — a single working mother, she takes her job seriously and regularly holds truth to those in power, like the Secretary of the Treasury and big bank CEOs. And Representative Lucy McBath (GA-6) who was motivated to run for office with gun control as a priority after her teenage son was shot and killed for playing his music too loud at a gas station. And of course, Joe Biden was elected president in large part because he was known for his decency and empathy — in other words, because of his character.
We also saw, at Trump’s impeachment hearings a year ago (or was it a decade ago?) that character still matters to government employees as well. And so, career officials like Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Fiona Hill stepped up to testify as to what they saw and heard and in doing so, they became household names and national heroes.
We need more people like these not just in public life, but in our private lives as well. We need to exemplify in all that we do and thus pass along to the next generation the Character Counts values: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. In that way, I believe over time, people like Donald Trump will not rise to positions of such power that he currently has. A culture of character is the best antidote to the culture of corruption. Character still matters.
