Ladies and Gentlemen,
If there’s one thing I can’t stomach, it’s watching people—those slick, well-dressed, smooth-talking vultures who infest the corridors of power—pretend that ethics are a luxury. Or worse, that they’re some quaint relic of the past that’s no longer needed in this modern, hyperreal, fast-paced world of cutthroat politics. Let me tell you, that is a goddamn lie.
Let’s start with the basics—ethics, the backbone of every action we take as humans, whether in the voting booth or in the back alley behind some smoke-filled bar. It’s that little voice inside your head that screams, “This is right,” or, more often, “This is wrong.” Ethics are the invisible thread that ties us to a code, whether that code is some lofty, idealized version of morality or just a rough map to get through the chaos of life with your skin intact. Ethics are how we determine whether we’re honest, whether we cheat, or whether we sell our souls for a price. It’s the silent referee in every encounter, in every negotiation, in every backroom deal that gets made. It’s the lens through which we judge not just others, but ourselves.
But here’s the real kicker: ethics are the only thing that separate the true man or woman from the snakes slithering around us. This is why I harp on it—why I scream about it until my throat is raw. Because when it all comes down to it, in the muck and grime of politics, the only thing that matters is character. And nothing, absolutely nothing, reveals a person’s character like how they handle power. How they treat others when they don’t think anyone’s watching. It’s easy to smile in front of a crowd, to wave a flag and make speeches that fire up the masses. But when the cameras are off, when the press stops asking questions, that’s when your ethics are tested. That’s when your true self comes into focus.
Politics, my friends, is the ultimate proving ground for character. It’s a game of lies and manipulation, a carnival of smoke and mirrors, and the temptation to sell your soul for a shiny trinket is strong. But ethics—good, solid, old-fashioned ethics—are what keep you from selling your soul in the first place. They are what separate the honorable from the dishonorable, the public servant from the power-hungry.
We’ve all seen it, haven’t we? The political scandals, the lies, the broken promises. It’s easy to point the finger and say, “That’s a crook!” But the truth is, those crooks didn’t start out that way. They didn’t wake up one morning and decide to be corrupt. No, they made a series of decisions, small and large, where they decided that ethics didn’t matter. And the next thing you know, they’re up to their necks in shady deals, caught in the crossfire of their own greed and ambition.
Why do I harp on this? Because the stakes are too high. We’re not talking about a game here. We’re talking about the future of a nation, the lives of millions of people, the very fabric of what makes us a society worth living in. And if we allow the ethics of our leaders to be eroded, we may as well be handing them the keys to the kingdom and saying, “Go ahead, burn it all down.”
Ethics matter. They matter in politics more than anywhere else. They define who we are, who we trust, and what kind of world we want to leave behind. So, damn it, let’s keep reminding ourselves—and those in charge—that character, integrity, and honor are the only things worth fighting for. The rest? It’s all smoke and mirrors.
