“All politicians are liars.”
It was an almost offhand comment in a long series of Facebook statements. No one even contested the idea, that everyone, EVERYONE who runs for office has no standard of morality, no inherent honesty. “Politicians and used car salesmen” were described as professions where integrity had no place.
Field Coordinator
I was on track to becoming a politician. I worked on my first campaign at fourteen years old, by my late teens I was taking organizational positions for local candidates. At twenty, I was a “field coordinator” for the 1976 Carter/Mondale Campaign. My job was to organize countywide operations in several areas outside of Cincinnati, and to help with all of the tasks in the “big city” itself.
It was an all-consuming experience. From September to Election Day I was working eighty hours or more a week. I remember working more hours than the dollars I was paid, but it was amazing. The folks I worked with were dedicated, excited, and a “band of brothers and sisters” dedicated to changing the country.
And we found, in the inevitable contacts we had with the Ford Campaign, that they too were just as dedicated and excited. Sure, they were “wrong,” but other than that, we had a lot more in common than our differences in political philosophy.
Paybacks
We “pranked” them. When President Ford was coming into town to have a rally on Fountain Square, we floated a rumor that the public address system wouldn’t work. I remember I slept on the floor of our offices, there to answer the 2 am call from the Ford guys, “…are you really going to mess with the President’s speakers?” My quiet “we’ll see” generated profanity, I went back to sleep. He was the President, we just wanted to make sure his local staff stayed awake.
And they pranked us. As we were on the rooftop of our building on Fountain Square on the morning of the Ford Rally, our counterparts on the Ford Campaign pointed us out to the Cincinnati Police. I remember it looked like those pictures from Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the bystanders pointing up at the windows. While the Secret Service knew what we were doing (putting up a banner) the local police didn’t. When I saw a dozen officers head into the door at street level, I knew we were in trouble.
They met us on the stairs, and put us up against the wall. After vigorous frisking, we were frog marched back to the square, and the Secret Service finally stepped in. They, and the Ford staff, were having a good laugh. We were angry at the time, they got us better than we got them.
But of course, we got the last laugh in the end. The first count in Ohio was that Carter won by 5000 votes, I think I shook each one of their hands during the campaign. While recounts made the gap a bit greater, at twenty I felt like I made a difference.
Make a Difference
That’s what politics is about, isn’t it? Making a difference, trying to change things for the better, trying to help people. That’s why people run for office, and work to get people elected.
Does corruption exist? Absolutely; the last political campaign I managed in 1980 we should have won, and, probably did. But my candidate didn’t take office, somehow, the votes turned out differently. Rumor was we needed to “hire” someone in the Board of Elections; if we had, perhaps the vote count would have turned out in our favor.
I left politics then, and went back to teaching. That was my first real taste of corruption, and I didn’t want any part of it. The classroom was where I chose to make a difference. I was twenty-four and the world was still pretty “black and white” then.
Shades of Gray
There are no regrets from that decision; I loved my career as a teacher, administrator, and coach. But in my “advanced age,” I’ve discovered another shade, just like the color of my hair: “gray.” Our nation, its government, and its politics have pockets of corruption, of leaders not willing or able to tell the truth. There are also leaders trying to make a difference, trying to “do good.” I don’t agree with all of them, Bernie Sanders for example. I believe that he, and many of the other Democrats who have risked their reputations to run for President, are doing so not for money, power, or notoriety. They are doing it to make the world they know better.
So I don’t believe all politicians are liars, or cheats, or out for themselves. They are far easier ways to “advance” yourself, then to strip your entire life and being bare to be examined in front of the world. Most politicians are trying to do that most honorable thing: make the world better.
They don’t deserve ridicule. They are earning respect.
