Why Troopergate matters to voters - Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs - Symposium - Column

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 4, 1994 | by Thomas C. Reeves

We are not discussing mere personality, which is the bearing and behavior of a person at the surface. (Crook may seem charming and jovial, while saints can appear misanthropic.) Character is what you are at the deepest level of your being and it is linked to your basic values and beliefs. In the Western world character includes the Judeo-Christian precepts of right and wrong deeply imbedded in our culture and reorganized by the majority of Americans.

Americans have long reflected on classical and biblical virtues, The first Anglicans, fro example, had a strong knowledge of right and wrong, and Puritans, Quakers and others devoted much of their energies to righteous living. During the Enlightenment, Americans wrote at length on the relationship between good character and judicious political leadership. The Declaration of Independence said of King George III: "A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." Thomas Jefferson paid tribute to George Washington's "perfect" character saving at one point that the "whole art of government consists in the Art of being honest."

Of course, certain acknowledgments must be made about the complexity of the concept. For example, presidents are politicians, and one cannot expect a St. Francis or a Mother Teresa in the White House. As in most things, it is a question of degree. Character must be judged not only by a high standard but also, in this case, by a reasonable standard that takes into account the things even the best American politicians are expected to do. Harry Truman had good character, but he also knew how occasion to cajole, threaten, lie and compromise on principle.

We also should distinguish between the trivial and the significant when thinking about character and the presidency. Examples of the former might include onetime extramarital flings (Grover Cleveland, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower), the admission of having lust in one's heart and the claim to have smoked but not inhaled marijuana. A consistent pattern of lying, thievery, cowardice, disloyalty or irresponsible is another matter.

Moreover, good character is only one quality an admirable president needs. It is also exceedingly helpful to have intelligence, breadth of knowledge, solid political skills, managerial competence, first-class advisers, public relations expertise and lots of luck. Jimmy Carter, for example, lacked six of these seven additional advantages. To repeat, character is extremely important, but it is not everything. It is significant because what you are plays a major role in determining what you do.

Then too, there is the obvious truth that good people can do bad things (one thinks of Woodrow Wilson), and bad people can do good things (Lyndon Johnson comes to mind). It is the overall tendency that matters.

It also is possible to grow in office. Chester A. Arthur was transformed from a crooked spoilsman into a dignified and decent statesman when the assassination of James A. Garfield summoned him to the White House In 1881.