Doing what is right should have no party affiliation

Sam Houston is a syndicated columnist and newspaper executive. He is also an author, actor, playwright, and entertainment producer/promoter.

Doing what is right should have no party affiliation

The Chinese have an expression of hope, “May you live in interesting times!”. I would think with the impeachment of the Texas Attorney General and a criminal indictment being filed against the former President of the United States this past few weeks, we may have accomplished the goal of existing in interesting times. Importantly, interesting does not necessarily mean good.

I long for the days when most voters had a moral compass and did what was “right” irrespective of candidate or party. If a politician lied, they were ostracized. If they cheated on their taxes, or their wife, they were immediately discarded from consideration as a candidate. If they broke the law, they were voted out, removed from office, prosecuted, and they suffered the shame of being held up to public ridicule. I am old enough to remember when Spiro Agnew was vice president. When it came to light, he had acted illegally, there was little if any discussion of party politics. The public called for his removal and the plea came from across the political landscape. What he did was wrong, and the American people were not going to tolerate a law breaker to be in the nation’s second highest office.

It seems like nowadays there are two standards for political conduct, the one a person holds their party to, and alternatively, the standard they have for everybody else. If a politician does something which is clearly wrong, illegal, or immoral, it is still OK if the politician belongs to the party a person supports. On the other hand, no matter what the infraction is, if a politician in the opposing party makes the slightest transgression, they should be hauled before the bench and immediately guillotined. I see this type of conduct from both sides of the aisle and if we do not stop such behavior, I fear for the future of our nation. Without the rule of law, we have nothing more than a banana republic.

Maybe I am old fashioned. Maybe I was raised with some good old Texas horse sense, but “wrong” is not determined by party affiliation, it is determined by the actions and the rule of law. Do not prejudge those charged with wrongdoing until the evidence is presented. Alternatively, those whose defense is centered on unsubstantiated allegations of unfairness uttered without a scintilla of evidence, should be discounted as nothing more than political hacks trying to hide from the facts and confuse the issue.

It should not matter if the wrong doer is a democrat or a republican. It should not matter if they are a man or a woman, black or white, young or old. Politicians who commit crimes should be prosecuted and if found guilty, eliminated from being in office. The American people deserve integrity in our leaders. We deserve statesmen to hold our public offices. We deserve honor in our leaders and our institutions.

The statue of Lady Justice has her eyes covered, because justice is intended to be blind to the identity of the defendant. It should not matter if they are an office holder or whether they are disenfranchised. Our country is best when the rule of law applies to all: Equally and fairly, and without prejudice or passion.

For me, I will wait for the evidence to be presented. I will not make up my mind until I see and hear the evidence. To do otherwise is to not follow the constitution and runs contrary to the values which Americans have fought and died for. We must be fair, but we must not be blind to facts just because we might not like the political consequences of those findings. We must also hold everyone to the same standard of behavior.

Thought for the day: Justice is the handmaiden of truth and when truth dies, justice is buried with it.

Until next time…I will keep ridin’ the storm out

sam@hcnews.com