February 8, 2007

Private Virtue...Public Vice

David Brooks makes the case that decent people, our leaders in Congress, have been manipulated in some way by the 'public process' into spinners of image and rhetoric while at their core they are decent people. That may be true for some, but honest men and women speak their true beliefs in private and public. At least that's what I expect from friends and politicians

The public process has become badly corrupted if the ideals of our democracy are subordinated to personal advantage, spin and media manipulation of our leaders.

Will truthful and men and women please stand up?  True leadership is not corrupted by the electorate.

 

"In short, our democracy, at least as it has evolved, takes individuals who are reasonable in private and it churns them through a public process that is almost tailor-made to undermine their virtues. The process of perpetually kissing up to the voters destroys the leadership qualities the voters are looking for in the first place: tranquillity of spirit, independence of mind and a sensitivity to the contours and complexity of reality. "

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