"Political cowardice is putting political party and the Machiavellian quest for re-election over integrity, honesty, and statesmanship."

...................................................................................................................................................................
It's time to talk about political cowardice
By Clete Wetli, August 2, 2016

Lately, our modern partisan political discourse has not only descended to previously uncharted depths of vulgarity and deception, but it also has turned into a dangerous game of avoidance wherein the candidates' personal culpability for lying, incompetence, or misdeeds is diminished by claiming the other side is guilty, as well.

Sadly, we've grown accustomed to politicians stretching the truth, but it appears we've entered a new era where outright lies are accepted and then given equal weight through the media's obsession to create false equivalencies.

The 24/7 news cycle likes to turn all political controversy into simple binary discussions which has not only allowed candidates a convenient cover for escaping responsibility, but more importantly, it has fostered the scourge of political cowardice.

Political cowardice was evident when the Republican Party allowed a decidedly non-Republican to be their standard bearer. Today, they are paying the price for abandoning their platform and core values.

Political cowardice was evident when Democrats refused to call out their candidate for not telling the whole truth about the email scandal. Today, party leaders and surrogates are twisting themselves in knots trying to justify their candidate's refusal to acknowledge the obvious.

Political cowardice is putting political party and the Machiavellian quest for re-election over integrity, honesty, and statesmanship.

Political cowardice is never admitting wrongdoing and, instead, doubling down on the vilification of the opposition or blaming the very tired red herring in spite of irrefutable truth to the contrary.

Little wonder that the American electorate is disillusioned, confused and frustrated.

However, it's time for the electorate to get honest with itself, too. Congress has an 11 percent approval rating yet incumbents have a 96 percent reelection rate. What gives?

The entire political process is awash in special interest money and the cost to run for office is astronomical, yet we continually fail to push for any substantive campaign finance reform.

We incessantly complain about media bias, but ratings indicate that we actually love and promote media bias so long as we can repeatedly hear the echo chamber of our choice. We prefer contrived and simplistic controversy rather than substantive debate because we've collectively decided that it's not as exciting as watching pundits verbally tear each other apart.

This is precisely what has contributed to the absurd notion that an "outsider" can fix governmental dysfunction.  This is why so many people who have no idea how political primary systems work or how the three branches of government function in practical application are screaming that the system is rigged.

The system is not rigged, but it definitely has problems that need to be addressed.

We claim that we want accountability and fairness in our politics and in our government, but lack the leadership and courage to actually make it happen due to our intense and adversarial partisanship. We treat our political system like a die-hard collegiate rivalry.

Perhaps, the good that can come out of this bizarre and unprecedented election cycle will be that we begin to hold our elected officials to much higher standards than the "I'd like to a drink a beer with them" litmus test of populist likeability.

It just appears that as issues become increasingly complex that we've succumbed to the laziness of oversimplification.  Maybe, it's time that we revisit the idea that having leaders who we believe are the "smartest people in the room" isn't an intellectually elitist ploy, but rather a prerequisite for meeting the real challenges of our democracy.

As we get closer to this historic election, we need to purge our politics of cowards who continue to the lower the bar and reward those who embrace the dignity of statesmanship and elevate the debate.
...................................................................................................................................................................