Good character in a political leader is essential not only for ensuring respect for law and order throughout society, but for uplifting families at home and ennobling the American spirit around the globe. The challenge for government in our democracy is to establish laws that deserve respect and for citizens to follow laws even when they find them inconvenient. But law, to be respected, must constrain the behavior of governments and their highest authorities as well as citizens. No society can thrive or dare contemplate leading the world if moral values are shortchanged. No government which derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed can maintain that legitimacy if those who govern do not operate under the same ethics and rules of conduct as those who are governed.
Leadership is the conjunction of good ideas and good character.
One without the other diminishes politics and demeans society. The reason our national political psyche is so disturbed today is a collective sense that America's political leadership is disoriented, lacking compass. What the American people seem to be crying out for, above all else, are models of probity. There is simply no room for conflicts of interest in public life. Impropriety saps the spirit, it undercuts the ethical as well as the economic foundation of society.