Personal Politics
I wrote earlier about the personal dominating the political in the presidential race – witness Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer.
Coincidentally, I spoke to two groups recently and got a question about that – one I get asked almost everywhere. Carter and I got it at a business group. Then I heard it from a group of college journalism students. Not long ago it was asked by a UNC-Chapel Hill professor.
The question boils down to this:
Why don’t the media (or the voters, or politicians, or political consultants) focus on real issues instead of superficial matters like personality and charisma?
Because “personality” and “charisma” are really about character. And character counts.
Most of us know, almost instinctively, whether a candidate agrees with us on issues. They’re Democrats or Republicans, for one thing. For another, we’re good at sniffing out where they stand on the issues we care about, whether it’s the war, health care, education, abortion, gay rights, environment, etc.
What’s left is the most important question in politics: Who do I trust?
We know that politicians can change their positions on issues. We know that new issues can arise.
So we want to know more about character. Because character is what leadership is about.
Look at the 2000 presidential election. George Bush ran as a “compassionate conservative.” He didn’t tell us he was going to invade
We are told that we shouldn’t let superficial personality matters affect us. But the truth is that we are very good at judging people, and we should give ourselves permission to do that in elections.
After all, a significant percentage of the American people apparently have spent a significant amount of time analyzing what happened to Anna Nicole Smith and who did what to her.
Picking a President – or Governor or Senator or Mayor – might be just as important. Let’s put that skill to work.
Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles in our Forum.
Personal Politics
I wrote earlier about the personal dominating the political in the presidential race – witness Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer.
Coincidentally, I spoke to two groups recently and got a question about that – one I get asked almost everywhere. Carter and I got it at a business group. Then I heard it from a group of college journalism students. Not long ago it was asked by a UNC-Chapel Hill professor.
The question boils down to this:
Why don’t the media (or the voters, or politicians, or political consultants) focus on real issues instead of superficial matters like personality and charisma?
Because “personality” and “charisma” are really about character. And character counts.
Most of us know, almost instinctively, whether a candidate agrees with us on issues. They’re Democrats or Republicans, for one thing. For another, we’re good at sniffing out where they stand on the issues we care about, whether it’s the war, health care, education, abortion, gay rights, environment, etc.
What’s left is the most important question in politics: Who do I trust?
We know that politicians can change their positions on issues. We know that new issues can arise.
So we want to know more about character. Because character is what leadership is about.
Look at the 2000 presidential election. George Bush ran as a “compassionate conservative.” He didn’t tell us he was going to invade
We are told that we shouldn’t let superficial personality matters affect us. But the truth is that we are very good at judging people, and we should give ourselves permission to do that in elections.
After all, a significant percentage of the American people apparently have spent a significant amount of time analyzing what happened to Anna Nicole Smith and who did what to her.
Picking a President – or Governor or Senator or Mayor – might be just as important. Let’s put that skill to work.
Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles in our Forum.