So here's a trade that I would be willing to make were it on offer. I would take an end to this pandemic with fewer that 10,000 deaths in the U.S. and let the president take credit for it if the alternative is following his ruinous plan to "return to normal" by Easter which is likely to result in more than 10 times that many deaths here. Sadly, I fear we will have passed that lower figure by the time Easter rolls around. Normal is not on offer any time soon.
I’m no fan of the current administration, and have opposed the president on many grounds, but, hey, if it would save more than a million lives he could take all the credit he wants.
The problem is, his own inability to confront the truth and take responsibility for speaking it as clearly as possible has led us to this moment. Truth be told, his inability to speak the truth is the what I can least tolerate about him.
Oh, to be sure, I disagree with him on almost every policy, and I find his misogyny and racism abhorrent. But it’s the constant lies that most get to me. I simply do not believe it is possible to lead effectively in any organization or institution if you lie repeatedly.
Do not say to me, “all politicians lie.” That’s no more helpful than the famous line from Dr. House, “everybody lies.” Sure, everyone does sometimes. But, also, everyone tells the truth, too. Ethical behavior and moral leadership lie in the balance of truth and falsehood.
Do not say to me, “all politicians lie,” because I am both a careful student of American history, and also someone who spent a decade working with state legislators and governors from both parties, and someone who has spent that past 20 years doing the kind of community organizing that most pastors do. I have worked closely and gotten to know personally scores of politicians, Republican and Democrat, liberal and conservative, of various races, genders, and religious convictions. Without exception, when I have spoken with them about how they got into public service they told deeply personal stories about their own communities and one issue about which they were passionate. Were they always perfectly honest? Almost certainly not. Did they lie consistently about matters great and small? Not a single one of them.
You cannot lead by lies. You cannot lead by saying of a pandemic one day “we have it very well under control” (Feb. 23), and say five days later that your administration’s actions are “the most aggressive taken by any country,” and then, two weeks later take “no responsibility” for the country’s lack of adequate preparation for an outbreak that had grown from 15 active cases when it was “very well under control” to 2,163 when you accept “no responsibility” to more than 80,000 just two weeks later.
It’s the lies. And it’s the lies that will kill tens of thousands (if we’re lucky) of us. And still, I’d let him take all the credit he wants if we could make that trade and save those lives.
