DO WE HAVE THE MORALITY TO LIVE AS FREE PEOPLE?

Can a free people govern themselves if they lack morality? George Washington didn’t think so. He went so far as to opine that for our government and our way of living to succeed, we need religion. He believed that without integrity/religion, free people would fail.

I want to talk about integrity. Do you think we have integrity in our politicians? Have you ever wondered how someone making $100,000 a year could wind up as a millionaire after just a few years in Congress? I have. Where did that money come from and what did it buy? What really is a campaign contribution? Is someone buying legislation or just access?

On a personal level, as a very young manager of a private company working in a state capital, I was called upon by the president of that company to deliver a check to a certain politician. I was told this check, a very large check by the way, was to insure that a piece of legislation which served no one but our company, would be brought to a vote and would pass. At the time I worked for a loan company and the legislation allowed us to raise our rate of interest.

The legislation was in fact passed and we did raise our rates and no one was any the wiser. And, no I would not participate in anything like that today. At the time I was very young and thought I was just doing my job.

Watching the news today is a real experience. We see the latest elected official who is being accused of sexual molestation, we see high powered bureaucrats lying to cover themselves for criminal acts. We see politicians lying trying to get elected in order to get in on the gravy train. Where is the integrity? And can our way of life continue to succeed without it?

We are well into a new year. There will be an election this year whereby the House and many in the Senate will face the voters asking for reelection. Have they earned your vote? Have they displayed integrity? Have they put the country first and their party second? Is there any new blood waiting for their turn at the gravy train? These are indeed tough questions and the answers are just as tough.

The voters gave this country a tremendous gift in our last election. We elected a Republican Senate, House, and President and we are just now beginning to see the fruits ripen from that election. We have a serious jurist now in the Supreme Court and the very real possibility of more vacancies in the near future. We have had a great reduction in the number of onerous regulations which has stifled business for many years. We finally got real tax reform. The Obamacare mandate has ended. People will have more money in their pockets. All the while the “anti-Trumpers” are holding nothing back in their efforts to try to de-legitimize this President. The all out attack on Trump and his family is unprecedented. And, so far, nothing has stuck. The Russia collusion fable is going nowhere.

Finally, it seems the entire country is getting a belly full. The constant investigations, bad press, innuendo, and the just outright lies are giving the country a headache. The sky is not falling. Trump is our President and will probably be for yet another term. Get used to it liberals. The people are in charge, not just a few so-called elites in Hollywood or in New York.

How many denizens currently dwelling on the swamp of Washington DC are showing integrity? And how many of those are there because of special interest money and power? And whose side are they really on?

The final question is, do we the people have enough integrity to elect honorable people and hold their feet to the fire? Will our way of living survive?

Ron Scarbro