POLITICS IS ABOUT PRINCIPLES, NOT RULES

One’s political career need not be modeled after great politicians, even though it is wise to study those of exemplary character. Politics is about principles, not rules.  A rule says around here we do it this way. A principle says this approach is mandatory and fundamental to humanity working at its finest. Principles practiced in ancient Greeks will apply today and for many generations after today. Your own campaign, to be successful, must stem from within you, from the principles that have shaped your life. It must be authentic and genuinely you. 

Principled politics is about eternal, universal norms, not media-based formulas. Successful campaign speeches are an art form.   They will excite audiences and voters if they are sincere. So these speeches should reflect your guiding principles. They should also anticipate the reaction of your audience. They must always show respect, not disdain, for the audience.

Great stump speeches should not be stereotypical; rather, they should be about universal human experiences: sensing one’s duty, living according to an honor code, responding to adversity, strengthening one’s character, self versus selfless, hubris versus humility, permanence versus change, dependence versus independence.  These speeches should capture the struggles of the nation–ones every family recognizes as familiar. Stereotypical speeches lose their way after one stop, while great stump speeches about universal values weather an entire political campaign.

My book, Politics with Principle drilled deeply within the character of ten public servants. It shows how important it is for political leaders to have personal stump speeches that are clear to themselves before they serve. By analyzing the conflicts Bill Bulger had in dealing with his criminal brother, or the adversity Admiral Lynch faced during the cheating scandal while he was Superintendent at the Naval Academy, or appreciating the circuitous route Ambassador Carlson took from a Massachusetts orphanage to the head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or the trailblazing Anne Bingaman had to do as she traveled from a small town of Jerome Arizona to Stanford University Law School and on to the antitrust division of the Department of Justice, one discovers how, in real life politics, the characters had to rally themselves with calls for virtues like: perseverance, prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude. In crisis, they all discovered good character as humanity at its best.

When my reader reads of the ten characters with character, these public servants may as Senators, Admirals, Ambassadors, University Presidents, at first seem vaulted above the lives of the average citizen. However, by understanding their struggles you will see they are, at heart like all of us. Their struggles are like our struggles. Like us they went about acquiring virtue in different ways, but all followed a straight path to duty. Therefore, let us try to imitate their actions and value good character as a means to success in whatever role we find ourselves cast.