The politicians are fighting for their brand. They are not fighting for the people. They are supposed to be representing the people.
With the release of the audio tape of Donald Trump making lewd and sexually aggressive comments about women, Paul Ryan told his fellow Republicans to do whatever they have to do to protect themselves. Ryan came up short of pulling his support for Trump. So, what does that tell me about Ryan’s accountability? It says he is more concerned with his brand than with being accountable to the people he serves. He serves the people of Wisconsin as their Congressman and he serves the supporters of the Republican party as the Republican leader.
By not pulling their endorsement Ryan and many other Republican leaders are asking me to vote for someone who violates my values. The interesting thing is that those same people say they have the same values that we do, but do they? If those supposed leaders really had those values then their decisions and actions would tell us that. Instead their actions tell us a completely different story.
There are many Republicans who want to cut bait and not support Donal Trump. On the one hand they’re worried about how they look if they support Trump. And, on the other hand they’re thinking if they don’t support the party’s presidential nominee then they won’t get party support in the next election cycle. Again, they are looking at their political brand and not keeping their commitments to the people they are supposed to lead.
Senator John McCain has pulled his support for Trump and I applaud him for that. There have been many professional athletes step up and say that the kind of “locker room” talk that Trump spoke of in his apology doesn’t really exist in the locker room, and these athletes should know. They live in the locker room.
Accountability doesn’t show up until it’s a difficult time, a hard decision needs to be made or a challenging position must be supported. This is a challenging time and accountability isn’t showing up for most of the Republican party. It’s a shame because it doesn’t have to be that way. Doing what’s right is always the right thing to do, even if it’s the difficult thing to do. And, that’s what I want the actions of my leaders to tell me they believe.
