The Importance of Ethics

Ethics are an important part of our lives.  They dictate how we should live our lives.  They should also dictate who runs our lives as a collective community.  I agree with Angela Albright’s blog posting “Who Can We Look Up To” http://www.angelasgov.blogspot.com/2012/03/who-can-we-look-up-to.html, at least in part.

Yes, one’s ethics is part of the job.  At least it is as President of the United States.  Who you are as a person dictates whether or not you get to be in the position to run our country.  However, I feel that some parts of an elected officials private life, even if they portray them in a negative light, have nothing to do with how well they represent us.  Take Bill Clinton for example.  Yes, he had an affair, but he also was an excellent President, balanced the budget and put the United States in a period of economic growth, and during his two terms, the American Public was at relative peace.  Does Clinton's infidelity make him unfit to lead us?  Are our leaders supposed to be without fault? 

However, one's ethics in relation to leading a country is a completely different story.  Flip-flopping ideas just so that you can stay away from anything too controversial, being penalized for 84 ethics related violations in Congress.  These things are far from their private life, where their decisions don't affect us.  These are the things we should be looking at during elections.  They speak volumes of their character.

So yes, ethics are important, but we can not expect everyone to be perfect.