Character's no longer important

I was raised by a progressive family who emphasized the importance of personal character in everything we did. Character in the sense of knowing who you were, what you were about and embracing it, even when you were criticized by others. Those teachings have stayed with me throughout my life and have buoyed my definition of self. I do and say what I think is proper and appropriate and give little thought to the people who question my lifestyle or criticize my words and behavior. At the very heart of character is truth. You have to be truthful with yourself, you have to tell the truth to others even when it would be much easier not to and you have to expect that others will do the same to you. We don't control what other people say or do so the last expectation is more of a hope than a given but we certainly control the first two.

Having said that, I'm totally disillusioned with the 2016 presidential campaign on both sides of the aisle. A couple of weeks back I went through a laundry list of untruths spoken by presidential candidates in their most recent debates and we were exposed to another debacle this past Tuesday.

Lying by presidential candidates has become so extreme that I've changed my whole perspective on it. They aren't just being loose with the facts, they're deliberately saying the things they know energize their base, like throwing red meat to a hungry animal, when they know the things they're saying aren't true.

There's not one truth-teller on either stage at a time when it would be so refreshing to have one. One person who would look directly into the television camera and say here's who and what I am with all my human blemishes and failings. You can take me or leave me but I promise you I'll never embarrass or humiliate you by telling lies to either pump you up or to cover my own backside.

But that person isn't in this race so we're left with the rest. And because we are, we're going to see more negative campaigning during the general election than we've ever seen before. Most people say they hate it but the political gurus also say it works so it continues. We'll see much more attacking of the other candidate than we'll see detailed plans of what this candidate intends to do and, once again, many will be sucked into that kind of sleazy tactic.

It doesn't have to be that way. Canada recently had a country-changing election when Justin Trudeau, son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, became the newly elected prime minister as the result of a political campaign that never went negative. Trudeau constantly and consistently talked about his plan for Canada's future rather than talking about his opponent's faults as has been done in previous elections.

His rivals, the Conservatives, stuck with the old ways, filling the air with negative ads starting months before the election was even announced. And the negative ads not only flopped, they backfired. Voters were obviously pumped by Trudeau's positive energy and that spurred turnout to jump to 69 percent from 61 percent in the last election. The Week magazine concluded that "maybe Canadian voters are ready for 'honest politicians' who attempt to be truthful rather than distorting their opponents' views."

We won't be copying Canada's success in our presidential election because the negativity on both sides has not only already started, it has blossomed. But maybe someday we'll have a bright, honest politician (if that's not a conflict in terms) who wants to do good things for this country, talks about them in an honest and forthright way, and boosts his or her own candidacy instead of trying to destroy the opponent.

I think a lot of people would vote for that person.