Honesty

I wish people could be rewarded for their honesty—especially during political season warfare. I doubt it would ‘break the bank’ with so few candidates applying for the honors.

This choreographed trend to be so politically correct in public discourse or at least inoffensive to whomever you are trying to sway with your rhetoric, is blatantly disgusting.

Whoever you are, why not just say what you mean and mean what you say. Is that so hard to do? Tell us where you really stand on important issues involving the health and welfare of others who are NOT you? Are you so afraid of our seeing your true self that you have to hide it under a pile of sanitized BS that still spews forth from your lips amidst your normal clouds of sulfurous fumes?

If you are really a bigot and a racist, then sound like who you actually are; not some carefully cultivated cleaned-version that you think will win you votes from folks who don’t really know you, and who YOU could truly care less about as soon as the election is over. Stop pretending you care about their lives other than their votes. Be your true authentic self—however flawed that might be. Let us see you in all of your unobstructed self-importance and tarnished public image. At least be honest about who you actually are.

Hopefully this is more than just a personal gripe of mine, but I hadn’t noticed how easily I normally ‘tuned out’ politicians and their standard self-focused blathering until listening this morning to a Bronx congressman talk about the state of politics and congressional races from his racially diverse point of view, which made way too much sense and sounded almost HONEST—not the usual hyped up, PR appropriate, politi-speak that politicians mindlessly emit.  He was sounding so common-sense and so practical that I perked up to hear him more clearly.  He almost sounded like an ‘honest politician’—is that even possible or is this just another election year ruse?  

When he called himself a “pragmatist” I thought, “Oh no. I’m being won over by a straight-talking, intelligent-sounding guy who values genuine problem solving and clarifying important common issues. And what’s even worse?  He sounds like he means it—sounds like he has lived it. That’s a dangerous stance in the political arena—someone being his actual self.

I don’t watch many political Sunday shows anymore because they all sound the same—just regurgitated politi-speak to emphasize what the majority of their listeners want to hear. But this guy was down to earth, and focused on the actual causation of social issues. He was a guy after my own heart—someone who keeps searching for that one correct question to ask to find an actual solution to all of our worst problems.

Now that’s scary—a politician that actually hooked my interest. Truth and honesty appeal that much to me because that’s the only way we can turn this off-kilter world around.

So is this guy for real or is his demeanor and manner of presentation just a new political ploy?  I guess only time will tell. Watch for Ritchie Torres.