The Ends do not Justify the Means

The Trump Administration has had significant accomplishments over the past year. I am very happy that our economy is booming right now.  Just this week, the report came out that unemployment reached the lowest level in decades.  We have a new Supreme Court Justice who will serve us well for many years.  We are in talks with North Korea for the first time in decades.  A lot of excessive regulations have been rolled back, removing unnecessary burdens on our businesses.  Congress passed a long-needed reform on Business taxes, bringing our business tax code in line with every other nation. 

But, the ENDS DO NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS.

EVER.

It is NEVER OKAY to dismiss unethical, corrupt, and immoral behavior in order to achieve a goal.   We all should have learned that in Kindergarten.

I am not talking about the petty issues that the Democrats keep bringing up. I am not talking about his being “politically incorrect”.  I am not talking about his making everything all about himself.  All that just goes to his personality, and we have had plenty of presidents with eccentric personalities.

But don’t confuse character and morality with personality. That’s something totally different, and it’s one’s character and morality that counts.

When Trump repeatedly lies on an almost daily basis, that is a moral failure of character, and we must stand up and speak out against that. I am not referring to his statements of opinion or statements that can be construed in different ways.  I mean the flat-out lies that have been disproved beyond doubt, but that he keeps repeating over and over again.  We are brought up to respect our leaders, and it we inherently want and need to believe and trust our leaders.  When one repeats the same lie over and over again, people actually start to believe it; especially those who don’t have the time to research and find out the truth.

When Trump falsely attacks every media outlet that publishes something he does not like, labeling it “Fake News”, that is a moral failing.  Some of these media may be editorially liberal, but very little of what they have reported has been proven wrong.  Reputable conservative-leaning media, such as the Wall Street Journal, National Review, and The Economist, are reporting essentially the same facts as the liberal media.  Even Fox News reports these same facts during their regular news programs, such as Shepard Smith’s segments in the afternoons. 

When Trump claims that our Justice Department and FBI are corrupt and are out to get him, that is not only a moral failure, it’s an attack on our very Democracy, and one I WILL NOT STAND FOR.  Our law enforcement agencies are made up of dedicated, hard-working Americans who put their lives on the line every day for far too little pay, and that includes those at the very top.  Both James Comey and Robert Mueller are Republicans, and both have a decades-old reputation for honesty and integrity. Neither one of them has ever been caught telling a lie, and it is beyond belief how anybody could believe the ridiculous accusations made against them by someone who tells lies big and small almost daily.

When we have a President that spreads conspiracy theories that are so outrageous that until now only the radical far-right or -left nut cases actually believed them, that’s another attack on our democracy.  There is no “deep-state” conspiracy. It is virtually impossible for two or three people to keep a secret.  Can anybody really believe that hundreds of people on both sides of the political spectrum are part of some wide conspiracy that controls every part of our government? 

Our party was founded 150 years ago on a set of core values, and followed by our greatest leaders, including Lincoln, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan.  These values are based on honesty, integrity, and morality. 

I AM A REPUBLICAN, and I believe in the core values our party was founded on 150 years ago.  Our own Virginia Republican Creed pretty much sums up exactly what I believe: That the free enterprise system is the most productive supplier of human needs and economic justice, that all individuals are entitled to equal rights, justice, and opportunities and should assume their responsibilities as citizens in a free society, that fiscal responsibility and budgetary restraints must be exercised at all levels of government, that the Federal Government must preserve individual liberty by observing Constitutional limitations, that peace is best preserved through a strong national defense, and that faith in God, as recognized by our Founding Fathers is essential to the moral fiber of the Nation.

BUT MY INTEGRITY IS NOT FOR SALE, and I will not compromise my own values by staying silent while a corrupt leader mocks these very values on which our party is based. 

There is nothing wrong with supporting the policies of our President, especially when they follow our party’s positions.  But we also must call out and condemn immoral and unethical behavior with just as loud and united of a voice.  We can never allow our ethics and integrity to be compromised by any individual.

OUR LOYALTY should ALWAYS be to our COUNTRY and to TRUTH and HONESTY, and then to our PARTY, and NEVER to any individual.

Right now, too many people in our party are allowing these core values to be sacrificed, and this is wrong. When we have a leader that lacks moral character, it becomes a CANCER that spreads throughout the administration and throughout the party, and that has been clearly evident ever since Trump took office.  This corruption has flowed all the way down to the local districts.

Is Trump too sleazy to be guilty?

The $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels as hush money has been a hot topic over the last few weeks.  Was this an illegal campaign contribution or not?   Did Trump know about the payment or not?   Did Trump reimburse his attorney or not?

If the payment was made in order to influence the election, or prevent negative influence over the election, then it was a campaign contribution unless Trump made it himself.   But Trump had stated that he did not know about the payment at the time.  He has stated that Cohen represented him. 

Much has been made over the fact that an attorney cannot settle a case without his client’s approval.  If Trump did not know about it, how could he have approved it? 

There is one scenario that has not been explored:

If covering up bad behavior was something that happened regularly going back way before the campaign, then it is entirely reasonable that Trump could have instructed his attorney to handle all such issues and could have authorized Cohen to confidentially settle them up to a certain dollar amount without further authorization.  His ongoing $35,000 monthly retainer payments to Cohen actually bolster this argument.   He essentially budgeted $35,000 per month to cover any consequences from his sleazy behavior.  $35,000 per month to a billionaire is about the same as $25 to people like you and me.

Personally, I can easily believe that Trump had just such an arrangement with Cohen.   After all, Cohen was his “fixer”.   Remember, Trump was caught on tape bragging that since he was a celebrity, he could randomly grab women by their private parts.  I think it’s safe to assume he actually did do that to women on occasion.  He also bragged about walking into women’s dressing rooms whenever he wanted as well.

While there is NO EXCUSE for that kind of behavior, we all know that there are some women that would have willingly accepted his assaults and returned the “affection”.   Others would have silently acquiesced out of fear or intimidation.  Others might have slapped him or slugged him.   Finally, it stands to reason that at least some of them would have taken some sort of legal action.  Given that the Billy Bush conversation happened almost 15 years ago, this does show a pattern of bad behavior going back decades.  Does anyone really believe that Stormy Daniels and the Playmate were the only two who complained?   And isn’t also likely that even Trump has occasionally been falsely accused by someone just looking to make money?   

I do NOT know for sure if this was what really happened or not.  But it DOES explain the actions of both Cohen and Trump, and explains how Trump really might not have known about the specific payments. 

If this WAS the case, and these types of settlements were so routine that his attorney was authorized to settle up to a certain amount without even contacting Trump, that pretty much negates the campaign contribution issue.

It kind of comes down to this:  If this was an isolated incident that required a payment right before the election, a crime probably was committed.  But, if Trump was so sleazy and immoral that these settlements were routine, then he probably did NOT violate election finance laws.