Small Town News

Scandals shouldnt decide our elections

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In Our Opinion

Should we care about the private activities of ourelected leaders?

With recent news of former California Gov.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's infidelity and the reex-amining of Republican presidential candidate Newt

Gingrich's past affairs, we're wondering where todraw the line when judging our current leaders aswell as candidates for office. Isitreallyanyofourbusinesswhatpoliticians do in their private lives, ordo private decisions reflect a larger truth about thepeople we trust to run our governments?

Slimy politicians are nothing new. Whether slimy people are drawn to the power of public office or holding public office makes good people slimy, we've seen our share of questionable morals from our elected leaders. But the way we look at these people and their decisions is changing, thanks in large part totheoverwhelming rush of information that is the 24-hour news cycle.

Whether it's a good thing or not, the endlessgrind of cable news and Internet coverage has madeit nearly impossible for a public figure to have muchn the wayof a personal life. The scandals always s eem to get out, and when they do, every detail is s crutinized and rehashed and analyzed from everypossible angle. On one hand, it's good for the publicto know what kind of life their elected representative

is leading. On the other hand, don't we have more important matters to discuss?

As candidates start stepping up (already?!?!) for the 2012 presidential election, we're sure that more dirt will be dug up and more skeletons will be pulled from closets. In theory, we as voters should feel some level of trust in the people we elect to represent us, but it's a personal decision whether one chooses to consider the candidate's personal life in weighing their merit as a policy maker.

For us, personal choices do have to be consideredamong many other factorswhen choosing our elected leaders. An individual's personal choices are evidence of their moral character and those choices should reasonably reflect their stated policy positions. If a candidate says one thing and does another, how can they be trusted to fulfill their campaign promises? Nobody's perfect, and small "gotcha" items some media outlets will blare in the coming months probably need to be put in perspective.

In fact, this whole discussion needs to be put in perspective. Our nation is on a precipice, economically, politically and culturally. We're in debt with no clear way out, our troops continue to toil and die overseas and our economy continues to roll along in the muck. As the presidential campaign builds later this year, keep those real issues in mind as you observe the discourse. Americans are jobless, hungry, homeless, dying. How much energy can we really devote to personal scandal at a time like this?



Copyright 2011 Cheney Free Press, Cheney, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2011 Cheney Free Press Cheney, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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