What We Sadly Didn't Hear in GOP Debate

The curtain is again open on the political stage of those declared candidates for president of the United States.

On August 23, the country was treated to a sometimes lively “debate” of eight candidates vying for the Republican nomination for president. We heard various comments regarding the ills plaguing the country and how each candidate was going to cure these.

Of course, there were the usual snippets cautiously crafted, methodically practiced and inserted at their most opportune moment.

But what I didn’t hear: How are any of these candidates going to bring integrity back into government? How are they going to restore the faith and allegiance of the public in our, what is supposed to be, the people’s government?

Throughout the history of the United States integrity and moral character have been identified as those characteristics necessary for national leadership. Geroge Washington told us in his Farewell Address “It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.”

In “James Madison, a Life Reconsidered” Lynne Cheney recalls Madison stated in the first Congress that the country needed “to revive those principles of honor and honesty that have too long lain dormant.”

Calvin Coolidge remined us of Hamilton’s words that “No party can survive which does not minister to national integrity.” He followed this in his Speech on the 150^th Anniversary of the Battles of Trenton and Prinston, stating: “The whole system of a self-supporting, self-governing people breaks down both in theory and in practice unless the individual is of a character capable of rising to the great dignity of that position.”

We have watched the trust and approval rating of our government falling precipitously over the last few generations from over 70% approval rating the early 1960s to a depressing less than 20% today! Is there any surprise at this decline given a government that we see is grossly out of control.

One member of Congress stated: “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

A president that compares losing one’s home and all their possessions to almost losing his “67 Corvette.” A government that is trying to regulate every aspect of your life even down to ceiling fans!

The district attorney in Alameda County, Calif., faces a recall for lack of criminal prosecutions, while in New York the district attorney says he is afraid to travel on the subways due to the crime he refuses to prosecute.

From coast to coast, the people have lost confidence in their elected officials to function in their positions. The inspector general of the Justice Department issued a report in 2019 detailing findings of perjury, subjoining perjury and gross misconduct within the FBI and Department of Justice; but as of this date no one has been held accountable. This from an agency that has the word “Integrity” as one of their three pillars!

Edmund Bruke, the great English political philosopher stated in “Reflections on the French Revolution” his assessment on the French Revolution: “Their tongue betrays them. Their language is in the patois of fraud; in the cant gibberish of hypocrisy.” Chris Lowery in “Heroic Leadership” says “…paralysis and incoherent lurching- indicate the same underlying problem: lack of core values and principles.”

Terry Golway tells in “Machine Made, Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern Politics” former Governor of New York William Sulzer told the people, “One boss in the great State of New York [is] defying the people, spurning their petitions, trampling their rights, laughing in their faces, and like Tweed in his day brazenly and audaciously saying. ‘What are you going to do about it?’ “

So, I ask all candidates: How are you going to bring integrity back into government and restore the faith and allegiance of the people?

The above is the opinion of the author and is not meant to reflect the opinion of the U.S. Navy or the U.S. Government.

John M. DeMaggio retired after 30 years of service as a Captain from the U.S. Naval Reserve Intelligence Program. He holds a Bachelor's of Science in Forensic Science from John Jay College and a Master's of Science from Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University. Privately consulting in counterterrorism, forensic science, and investigations, he also conducts international counterterrorism training, having retired as a Special Agent in Charge and serving as Co-chairman, Investigative Support and Forensic Subgroup, TSWG, developing interagency counterterrorism technology. He is also an op-ed contributor for The Hill. He previously published "Mitigation of Terrorist Effects on Victims' Motivation" in U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Center Colloquium. Read John M. DeMaggio's Reports — More Here.