Hypocritical Values

Wed, 03/30/2011 - 11:53

If I had the power to administer truth serum to politicians, liberal or conservative, I would ask them three questions:

1.If your personal principles and values were the opposite of the majority of voters, would you pretend to believe what the voters believe?

2.If you didn’t care one way or the other about an issue important to voters, would you pretend it was one of your most important issues?

3.Do you pretend to believe that God wants you to run for public office, has told you the issues to support, or has forgiven you for past transgressions after you were caught?

Those who would answer “Yes” to all three would score 100% in my hypocrisy test, not a value I prize. Since I don’t have a truth serum to administer, I just make educated guesses about politicians.

During the 2008 primaries, I awarded my “hypocrisy” prize to Mitt Romney. He was for gay rights and abortion rights when running for governor of Massachusetts. As a Republican candidate for president, he claimed his positions had “evolved.” One could say he was for equal rights before he was against them.

Read the rest of this post at the WashingtonPost.com's "On Faith."

Comments

Submitted by Bill Haines (not verified) on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 12:57.

But an atheist politician well might answer

1. yes, otherwise I'd never be elected, and I'm a good legislator / executive who does a better job by all objective standards than the person I replaced in office

and

2. yes, if the issue is important to a majority of voters in my jurisdiction and the majority stance on the issue isn't morally repugnant to me, otherwise I'd be neglecting my duty to represent them democratically

without being hypocritical in my opinion. Thoughts?

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Herb Silverman

Herb Silverman is the founder and president emeritus of the Secular Coalition for America. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Syracuse University and is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the College of Charleston. In 1990, Silverman became South Carolina's most famous atheist activist when he challenged the state's religious test for public office by entering its gubernatorial race. He is a regular contributor to The Washington Post's "On Faith" blog.

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