About Make America Better

American democracy allows citizens to vote on the basis of party loyalty, policies and self-interest. But, if they don’t seek out and vote for political candidates who are wise, thoughtful, compassionate, patriotic and humble, their votes will do harm to themselves, their fellow citizens, and the fabric of American democracy. The consequence of voter ignorance is bad government, social and political division and injustice. The best word that describes these conditions is “corrupt.”

Corruption is defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It encompasses various forms of misconduct in governance, including:

  • Fraud: This is the most prevalent form, accounting for 40.6% of corruption cases in federal courts
  • Bribery: The second most common type, representing 35.6% of corruption cases. This includes receipt and solicitation of bribes
  • Extortion: While less common than fraud and bribery, it’s still a significant form of corruption, especially in state-level cases
  • Conspiracy: Often charged alongside other corrupt activities
  • Embezzlement: Misappropriation of public funds for personal gain
  • Official misconduct: Abuse of power by government officials
  • Obstruction of justice: Interfering with legal proceedings or investigations
  • Stock trading based on insider information: A recent prominent example of corruption among government officials
  • Influence peddling: Using political influence for personal or financial gain, often facilitated by campaign finance laws and Super PACs
  • Nepotism and cronyism: Favoring family members or close associates for government positions or contracts

 

While they may not know the details, the fact that Americans’ trust in government is very low shows that they are well-aware of wrongdoing in government. They might not like to think in terms of “corruption” but that is what they are seeing.

Corruption erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development, and exacerbates inequality, poverty, and social division. Corruption can occur at various levels of government and society, involving politicians, public officials, business people, and even members of the public. The effects of corruption on society include:

  • Undermining political stability
  • Weakening the rule of law
  • Hindering economic growth
  • Increasing social inequality
  • Damaging public trust in institutions

 

The only antidote for corruption is an electorate that is informed about the character of America’s elected leaders. To be informed, citizens will need to do the hard work of monitoring and judging how elected leaders go about the business of governing — not just the policies they support but the character they present to the world while doing the peoples’ business. If Americans don’t learn how to judge character, America will remain handicapped in social/political division and corruption.

Pearl S. Buck rightly identified the consequences of these conditions in A House Divided (a historical fiction novel published in 1935):

  • A house divided against itself cannot stand.
  • In this great house where humanity resides, division weakens the foundation and undermines the purpose.
  • The strength of a house lies not in its structure, but in the unity of its inhabitants.
  • When division infiltrates a household, chaos replaces harmony and love becomes scarce.
  • A divided house is a breeding ground for discontent, resentment, and pain.
  • When individuals focus on their differences rather than their shared commonalities, a house becomes divided.

Exemplary political leadership is necessary to guide America out of corruption and division to unity. Exemplary leadership can be found only in leaders with exemplary character. The first problem Americans face is that they do not know what exemplary character looks like. If Americans did know how to identify exemplary character, they would vote for political candidates who exhibit exemplary character. Someone needs to start teaching Americans how to identify exemplary character: First in themselves and then in their elected leaders. This is what Make America Better: Vote for Character hopes to do.

Up until the mid 1900s, teaching on character was a feature of public education in America. But teaching on character changed after religion co-opted character in favor of religious values and morality codes which are not common to all Americans. Government and religion are not reliable teachers of what character is or how to acquire it. If government and religion had the ability to demonstrate and teach the public about the qualities of good character, America would not be as divided and corrupt as it is.

Make America Better audaciously presumes to begin to fill the gap in educating the public about character and virtue.

Americans need to learn how to judge character so they can vote for leaders with character. This is not a quick fix, but America will only continue its downward slide if American voters remain ignorant about the importance of good character in their own lives and in government.

The big idea behind Make America Better is to elevate character as an essential factor in choosing elected officials. This does not mean that there is no place for party affiliation or policy discussion in government. Party affiliation and policy discussion are baked-in features of democracy. It just means that, over time, the issue of character of elected officials has been degraded and minimized by three influences:

  • Partisan loyalty
  • Emphasis on policy
  • Charismatic leadership

 

There will always be political parties and there will always be policy differences over which reasonable men/women will disagree, but people with good character know how to resolve policy differences to achieve outcomes that benefit all Americans.

Elected officials with good character will always legislate for the common good. Elected officials with bad character will always legislate for self-interest and special interest groups.

The reason people don’t trust government is that it has too many self-serving, charismatic politicians who lack virtue and good character. America will not be united until politicians with bad character are replaced with politicians of good character.

The true character of political candidates may not emerge until they are in office. By that time, it is too late because it is impossible to impeach elected officials for bad character. This argues strongly for judging character before voting to avoid voters’ remorse.

Voters who do their due diligence by evaluating character of elected officials before voting will still have to live with the consequences when uninformed voters elect officials with bad character, but that consequence is the reason for early education about the benefits of evaluating character on an ongoing basis so that judgments of good or bad character can be made before more damage is done.

How to judge character is a delicate matter. Lacking clear guidelines, well-meaning but ignorant voters will use their best, subjective judgment and vote for external, human qualities instead of evaluating internal, invisible qualities of the heart that do not change. These qualities are much better predictors of how elected officials will perform while in office.

Fortunately, there is research (https://positivepsychology.com/classification-character-strengths-virtues/) that provides useful guidelines about basic virtues that can help voters evaluate character. These virtues include:

Virtue of Wisdom

Virtue of Courage

Virtue of Humanity

Virtue of Justice

Virtue of Temperance

Virtue of Transcendence

Each of these virtues will be topics of posts in Make the World Better. Other posts will also aid judgment of character. Most future posts will be based on 24 character strengths identified by Positive Psychology:

Once these posts are distributed, it will be up to journalists and concerned citizens to share the posts and principles of good character broadly in their unique family, work, political, religious and social media circles. Make America Better provides the curriculum, but journalists and everyday Americans are the students and teachers. Here are a few examples of what they can do:

  • Media articles on character and how to judge it.
  • Media exposure of political candidates’ character qualities.
  • Political pundits and social commentators discuss political candidates’ character qualities — both good and bad.
  • Social scientists publicly discuss political candidates’ character — both good and bad.
  • Political parties vet candidates for character qualities and discipline people in office when they exhibit bad character.
  • Voters alert political candidates that character is a factor by which they vet candidates.
  • Voters rebuke elected politicians when they exhibit bad character
  • Voters affirm elected politicians when they exhibit good character.
  • Educational institutions teach about character and how to judge it.
  • Religious and nonpartisan, nonprofit political organizations teach the public about character.
  • Individual voters share the principles of good character on social media.
  • Individual voters practice the principles of good character in their own lives.
  • Individual voters teach the principles of good character to their friends and family.

 

Obviously, this is only a short list of strategies for raising the quality of character in America, but it is a good start. The general objective is to get character on everyone’s radar so that everyone will monitor their own character and consciously work to improve it so that they are mindful of character when voting.

References for Further Study