When There’s a Will
I am an old high school teacher, so I have had the opportunity to study many, many kinds of cheaters. In the old days we had the basic cheaters: looking at someone else’s test, stealing the test key and writing down the answers, scribing in ink on hands, arms, legs, top of feet, and that one strange kid who had the entire test key on his belly.
There were the “crib” noters, with tiny, tiny pieces of paper, carefully filled with needed equations or factoids. In the event of emergency, the scraps could be quickly wadded up and discarded, or in the extreme, swallowed. And then there were “committee” cheaters, groups who would design sectional crib notes, then stealthily pass them among the class during the test.
Electronic Age
But even in those ancient times before computers and cell phones, we had the “advanced” cheaters, the kids that spent so much time prepping to cheat, they should have just studied – it would’ve been easier. There was the guy who carefully arranged the “smart” kid to sit diagonally from the very shiny silver fire extinguisher. He made his grades on the reflection, making sure he only got a ‘C+’. An ‘A’ would be far too suspicious. He would also try to array multiple smart kids around him. It gave him the option of taking the majority answer in case there was a controversy.
Then there was the “hat” kid. Every answer was written in near microdots on the inside of the brim. If the teacher let him keep it on, there was a lot of squinting up. If he had to take it off, there was a lot of glancing down at the floor. Either way, he had whatever answer he needed.
Of course modern technology brought technical cheating advances. There are the earplug kids. A student from the period before recites the answers from a copied, photographed or purloined test, while the hardwired cheater writes them carefully down. This also has variations in texts, photos, and such. And there is the “Googler”, ready to reach for “a friend” to determine the appropriate response, even for essay questions.
Retribution
As a teacher, you had to assume there were cheaters in your class. You were on guard: vigilant as students took their exams, suspicious of those with exactly the same wrong answers, and cautious of electronic theft. You took precautions: multiple versions of the same test, long walks through the aisles, a seat carefully chosen in the back of the room so students wouldn’t see where you were looking.
The short answer was – someone was always trying, and if you assumed your class wasn’t cheating, you most certainly were wrong. The entire school knew which class was “easy” to cheat in. If you didn’t try to catch cheaters, they would try it again and again and again.
And when you caught someone cheating, it was important to “make an example”. I wouldn’t hold them up to public ridicule; that’s just wrong no matter the offense. No, I used a zero on the test, a call to parents, and a word to guidance counselors. All served to “motivate” the cheater to change their ways.
Big Cheaters
Getting elected to President of the United States is the biggest test of all. There are a myriad of ways to cheat, to find a way to shortcut the system in your favor, or make it worse for your opponent.
Maybe it’s cooperating with a foreign nation, or enflaming the electorate on social media. Perhaps it’s stealing information or strategies, so that you can better counter with your own tactics. Or, it’s simple slander, telling lies about the person. Once those hit the Media, they can never be disproved or ignored.
Like cheating in class, the excuse of proclaiming that “everybody does it” just doesn’t fly. First of all it’s not true, not everybody does cheat in class, or in political campaigns. Secondly, it’s reasonable concept that someone running for leadership in our society shouldn’t “cheat”. It might sound quaint, but that should be the “norm”.
No Consequences
But when you catch someone cheating, the surest way to encourage him or her to do it again is to have NO consequences. Let’s look at the Trump Campaign.
- Took information from Russian Intelligence – no consequences.
- Asked for foreign countries to assist, Russia, China, and Ukraine – no consequences.
- Interfered with the counting the votes by flooding phone lines with bogus calls so election results can’t be transmitted (Iowa this week) – no consequences.
- Encouraging voters to fraudulently claim to be a member of the opposition party so they can vote for candidates that are easier to defeat – no consequences.
Robert Mueller marshaled facts showing the Trump Campaign worked with Russia. Despite the persistent drone of Republican claims, Mueller DID NOT say there was “no collusion”. In fact, he cited hundreds of instances of cooperation. What Mueller said was that he was unable to find enough evidence to reach a criminal certainty. Trump got away with it.
Ukraine
Attorney General Bill Barr refused to let the Justice Department look at the Ukraine scandal. So it was Congress, specifically the House of Representatives, who brought the information to light. The President countered by releasing a summary/transcript of his phone call – calling it “perfect” – even though a plain reading of it proved the House’s case. Seventeen witnesses and tons of documents ultimately backed up the House, and they did the one thing they could do.
They impeached the President. They challenged the Senate of the United States to judge his actions and determine both the facts and the penalty. The Senate failed to act. Republican Senators quite literally stuck their fingers in their ears and sang “♫ La-La-La ♫” so they didn’t have to hear what the President did.
Still Cheating
Yesterday the Attorney General announced that “all candidate investigations” had to be approved by his office. He even tried to illegally expand his authority to the House and Senate, an action I’m sure Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Schiff will gladly ignore. Bill Barr is proving to be the President’s best weapon – the virtual teacher who let’s his personal “student pet,” cheat.
Democrats couldn’t be blamed for taking the view: “if Trump cheats, we have to cheat as well”. That would be wrong. They can’t run on the issue of Trump’s lack of morality, and then show they are lacking too. So what can Democrats do?
They have to run honest campaigns. They should show the American people that they don’t have to cheat to have better ideas about what’s good for our country. In fact, not cheating is the first really good idea. Americans don’t want cheaters as their leaders. America wants leaders they can trust.
