Politicians with good character make America better
Good character legislates for the common good -- not self interest.
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Factors Thoughtful, Independent-minded Voters Consider Before Voting
Factors Swing Voters Consider When they Decide Whom to Vote for
Make America Better’s Role in Educating Voters on Judging Character
Why People Vote the Way they Do
Here are the most common criteria by which voters choose whom they vote for.
Social influence: Friends, family and religious associations strongly influence political attitudes and voting habits. These influences sometimes relate to the voter’s age and culture.
Party identification; This is one of the most stable and influential factors in how people vote. Many voters have a long-term attachment or loyalty to a particular political party that shapes their voting decisions across multiple elections. Some voters will always vote for their preferred party regardless of issues or candidate character.
Issue positions/policy preferences: Voters' stances on specific policy issues and how well candidates' positions align with their own views on policy issues is an important factor. Examples of issues include, but are not limited to, the following: immigration; abortion; climate change; economy and inflation; crime and public safety; national security and terrorism.
Candidate Character: Perceptions of the personal character of candidates play a significant role for some voters. Factors voters consider include, but are not limited to, perceived competence, integrity, morals, leadership ability, charisma, etc. However, character traits are heavily influenced by voters' political assessments of candidates. Character evaluations may often have a political foundation rather than being purely objective.
Candidate charisma: Charisma is not the same as character. Voters who are not well informed about policy issues, who are not strongly associated with a political party, and who are not strongly associated with generational, family, cultural and religious groups may be unduly influenced by the charisma of candidates who receive a lot of “sound bite” exposure through social media and legacy media. Voters who understand character look deeper into candidates’ motivations and history.
Because conditions like legislation, the economy, social movements, world affairs and climate are always in the news, party affiliations and attitudes about policy are in constant flux. Dynamic news cycles amp up radically during election seasons when voters with strong political party, generational and social/cultural ties may switch parties and candidate preferences.
Although the world or politics changes rapidly, the internal character of political candidates is more-or-less fixed. Political candidates, like most people, either have good character or they don’t. During election seasons, political candidates polish up their visible, public words, behaviors and appearance so that they look good to voters but internally they do not change. This fact makes judging character a reliable way to decide whom to vote for.
Arguments for Why Voters Should Judge Character
There are several key arguments for why voters should judge a candidate's character when making voting decisions:
Influence on Decision-Making: A candidate's character traits can significantly impact how they will make decisions and govern if elected. Traits like honesty, integrity, and trustworthiness are seen as indicators of how ethical and principled a leader will be. Meanwhile, traits like competence, experience, and leadership ability suggest how effectively they may be able to handle the responsibilities of office.
Predictive Value: Character assessments can serve as heuristics or shortcuts for voters to predict a candidate's likely behavior in office, especially when detailed policy information may be lacking. Voters use perceptions of traits like honesty, morality, and compassion to infer how candidates might act in various political situations.
Personal Connection: Many voters view their vote for president or other high offices as a very personal decision. Evaluating a candidate's character allows voters to determine if they feel they can trust and relate to that individual on a personal level.
Importance in Governance: Traits like strong leadership, decisiveness, and the ability to inspire are seen as crucial for effective governance, particularly for executive positions like the presidency. A candidate's character can impact their ability to build coalitions, navigate crises, and represent the country.
Media Focus: Campaign coverage often emphasizes candidates' personal qualities and character. This makes character evaluation a prominent factor that shapes public perception and discussion around elections.
Complementing Policy Positions: While policy stances are important, character evaluations complement them by giving voters a more holistic view of the candidate. This can be especially relevant when candidates have similar policy positions or when voters are less informed on specific issues. In essence, evaluating a candidate's character provides voters with valuable insights into how that individual may perform in office beyond just their stated policy positions. It allows for a more comprehensive assessment of their potential as a leader and representative.
In summary, judging a candidate's character is crucial because it provides insight into their potential behavior as a leader, their decision-making capabilities, and their ability to handle unforeseen challenges. Character serves as a reliable indicator of how candidates will govern, interact with constituents, and interact with foreign and domestic leaders.
Leaders with good character have the ability to generate a positive reputation for America. Leaders with poor character have the ability to generate a negative reputation that will spoil America’s place as a leader on the world stage.
Arguments for Why Voters Should Not Judge Character
Perplexity.ai reports the following reasons why voters should not focus on judging candidates' character when making voting decisions:
Voters often have limited information to accurately evaluate a candidate's character:
Campaigns present carefully crafted public images that may not reflect a candidate's true nature.
A candidate's past actions or statements can be taken out of context or misrepresented.
Voters' personal biases can cloud objective assessment of character.
Importance of Policy and Qualifications
A candidate's policy positions and ideology have a more direct impact on governance.
Professional qualifications, experience, and competence are essential for effective leadership.
Political skills and ability to build coalitions affect a leader's effectiveness.
Potential for Manipulation. Focusing on character assessments can be problematic:
It may lead voters to make decisions based on superficial traits or likeability rather than substantive issues.
Character attacks can be used as a political tactic to distract from policy debates.
Voters may project their own ideals onto candidates rather than seeing them objectively.
Difficulty Predicting Future Behavior: Past character does not always predict future actions:
The pressures and responsibilities of office can change how leaders behave.
Candidates may evolve and grow in their roles.
Specific situations often have more influence on decision-making than general character traits.
While character assessments may feel intuitive to voters, these arguments suggest policy positions and governing competence should take precedence in voting decisions. On the other hand, proponents for voters judging character maintain that character does matter significantly for leadership. Ultimately, voters must weigh these competing perspectives.
Virtues that Define Good Character for Leaders
Perplexity.ai reports this summary of desirable character qualities for all leaders:
Integrity is consistently mentioned as a fundamental virtue for leaders. This encompasses honesty, ethical behavior, and aligning one's actions with one's values.
Courage is another critical virtue, allowing leaders to stand up for what's right and make difficult decisions.
Empathy enables leaders to understand and connect with others, showing compassion and concern for their followers.
Self-awareness allows leaders to understand their own strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots.
Determination helps leaders persevere in the face of challenges.
Optimism provides a positive outlook that can inspire others.
Curiosity and open-mindedness enable leaders to continue learning and adapting.
Moral Dimension: Good character for leaders goes beyond just being effective - it includes having a strong moral compass and ethical purpose. This moral dimension distinguishes truly good leaders from those who may be effective but lack ethical grounding.
Leaders with strong character traits tend to:
Inspire loyalty and trust in their followers
Make better decisions aligned with organizational values
Create more positive work environments
Generate better financial results for their organizations
Developing and demonstrating these character virtues is crucial for leaders at all levels, not just those in senior positions. By consistently embodying these traits, leaders can earn respect, motivate others effectively, and guide their organizations toward both ethical and successful outcomes.
Perplexity.ai reports these foundational virtues derived from classical philosophy and Christian theology. List has been edited and reformatted by Make America Better.
Integrity: Being honest, principled, and consistent in one's actions and words.
Courage: Overcoming fear to do what is right, even in difficult circumstances.
Wisdom: Draw on history, knowledge and experience to pursue the common good.
Justice: Treating others fairly and equally, with a commitment to the common good.
Temperance: Exercising self-control and moderation.
Humility: Demonstrating self-awareness, openness, and an ability to rise above volatile circumstances with grace and wisdom.
Compassion: Showing kindness, generosity, and care for others.
Drive: Having motivation and determination to achieve goals.
Accountability: Taking responsibility for one's actions and decisions.
Collaboration: Working effectively with others towards shared objectives.
Transcendence: Having a sense of purpose beyond personal, self interest.
Judgment: The ability to create legislation for the common good of all Americans — not for self-interest or special interest groups.
Leadership: Ability to clearly articulate goals and objectives and delegate responsibility. Willingness to hold subordinates accountable for failure to demonstrate positive leadership skills. Willingness to hold subordinates accountable for failure to achieve corporate goals delegated to them.
These virtues are not just about behavior, but also reflect a leader's thinking, beliefs, and motivations. It is important to note that these virtues should be balanced, because any virtue taken to an extreme can become a vice. Effective leaders strive to develop and maintain these character traits, which enable them to inspire others, make ethical decisions, and lead successfully.
Undesirable Character Qualities for Leaders
Poor Communication Skills
Vagueness and flip-flopping on roles, goals, timelines and responsibilities
Passive-aggressive communication styles
Failure to listen to concerns and ideas
Create an intimidating work environment that discourages open communication and teamwork
Uses double-speak to confuse and cover up mistakes and hypocrisy
Lack of Integrity
Fail to take responsibility for mistakes
Blame others instead of owning up to problems
Practices hypocrisy
Legislates for self-interest and special interest groups
Panders to voters to secure campaign donations and votes
Create an environment of dishonesty and deception that gives license for others to be dishonest and deceptive
Repeat lies and hide truth
Embrace conspiracy theories
Inflexibility and Resistance to Change
Inability to adapt leadership style to different situations and employees
Practice a "my-way-or-the-highway" mindset
Resistance to new ideas, systems or innovations
Unwillingness to evolve in terms of attitudes and behaviors
Poor Conflict Resolution Skills
Inability to manage internal and external conflicts constructively
Inability to negotiate honestly and transparently to reach mutually beneficial solutions in difficult circumstances
Resorts to bullying to save face or win and argument
Lack of Empathy and Emotional Intelligence
An inability to understand or consider others' perspectives
Dismissiveness towards differing opinions
Failure to recognize and address needs of others
Voters who consider political candidates’ internal character always do so in the context of party affiliation and policies. Rarely does character override party affiliation and policy in the voting booth.
It is relatively easy to judge candidates’ looks, charisma and policy positions, but more time and evaluation is required to judge character. Moreover, the media are very helpful to voters who evaluate candidates’ looks, charisma and policy, but are minimally helpful with respect to judging character. Therefore, voters who might be inclined to take the time to judge character and are willing to vote for candidates who demonstrate exemplary character — regardless of their party affiliation or policies — tend to be ignorant about character issues and how to integrate them into voting decisions.
How Independent Voters Decide Whom to Vote For
There are several key arguments for why voters should judge a candidate's character when making voting decisions:
Character provides a foundation for leadership and decision-making: Character is fundamental to how a leader will make difficult decisions, especially in unforeseen circumstances not anticipated during a campaign. Leaders need strong character to make the difficult decisions when there are no simple answers and when political ideology alone is insufficient.
Character traits influence governing style and priorities: A candidate's personality traits and character can shape how they will govern and what they will prioritize in office. Voters often use assessments of a candidate's character as hints about their likely behavior and decision-making as a leader.
Character judgments happen obscurely: Research shows that voters naturally form impressions of candidates' personalities and use those impressions in their voting decisions, even based on limited nonverbal information. Since these judgments happen anyway, it's better to make them purposefully and thoughtfully by considering objective qualities of good character.
Character reflects underlying values: A candidate's character provides insight into their core values and the moral framework that will guide their actions in office. Judging character allows voters to assess if a candidate's values align with their own.
Character persists while policies change: While specific policy positions may shift, a person's fundamental character does not change. Judging character gives insight into how a leader may handle unforeseen future challenges.
Character impacts trust and credibility: A leader's character shapes whether voters will trust them and view them as credible, trustworthy, and deserving of their office. Leaders who lack constituent affirmation are hindered in their ability to govern effectively.
in summary, while policy positions are important, a candidate's character provides crucial insight into how they will actually lead and make decisions once in office. Thoughtfully assessing character allows voters to make informed choices about who they want representing them and governing their country.
Factors Thoughtful, Independent-minded Voters Consider Before Voting
Independent voters tend to look for the following personality traits in political candidates:
Authenticity: Voters are turned off by candidates who seem phony, insincere and hypocritical. They prefer candidates who come across as genuine and true to themselves.
Honesty/Trustworthiness: Given low trust in politicians, voters value candidates they perceive as honest and trustworthy. This relates to integrity and consistency between a candidate's words and actions.
Humility: Arrogance is seen as a negative trait. Voters appreciate candidates who demonstrate humility and are open to listening to constituents.
Openness: Uncommitted voters may be drawn to candidates they perceive as open-minded.
Agreeableness: Ability to get along with others is an important trait that voters evaluate in candidates.
Emotional stability: This is another key dimension that voters tend to assess in political candidates.
Leadership ability: Voters look for candidates they perceive as having strong leadership qualities and the ability to inspire others.
Competence: Perceptions of a candidate's experience, knowledge, and ability to handle the job are important to voters.
Compassion: Voters favor candidates they see as caring and concerned about others.
While specific policy positions matter, personality traits and character assessments play a significant role in how thoughtful voters evaluate candidates. However, it is worth noting that the impact of judging character traits in election outcomes is inconclusive because voters are not trained in the fine art of how to judge character.
Factors Swing Voters Consider When they Decide Whom to Vote for
Perplexity.ai reports that swing voters often carefully evaluate the policy positions of candidates on issues that matter most to them.
Policy Issues. Swing voters often focus on specific policy areas that are important to them personally:
Economy and jobs - Many swing voters prioritize economic issues like employment, inflation, and overall economic growth.
Healthcare - Access to affordable health insurance and lowering healthcare costs are major concerns for swing voters.
Climate change - Environmental policies can sway some swing voters, particularly those concerned about climate impacts.
Immigration - Border security and immigration reform are influential issues for certain swing voters.
Candidate Evaluations. Beyond policy, swing voters assess the personal qualities and characteristics of the candidates:
Leadership ability - Perceived competence and capability to lead the country effectively.
Character and trustworthiness - Evaluations of candidates' integrity and honesty.
Relatability - How well candidates connect with and understand average voters.
Performance and Results. For incumbent candidates, swing voters consider:
Government performance - Evaluations of the administration's track record and accomplishments.
Handling of key issues - How effectively leaders have addressed major challenges.
External Factors. Other influences on swing voters can include:
Media coverage and narratives - How candidates and issues are portrayed in the news.
Campaign messaging - Effectiveness of candidates' communication and advertising.
Conversations with friends/family - Personal discussions that shape political views.
Voter Engagement. It's important to note that many swing voters are less politically engaged overall:
They tend to pay less attention to political news and campaigns.
Some may not decide until very close to Election Day or even in the voting booth.
They are often less ideological and more open to crossing party lines.
Understanding these diverse factors helps explain why swing voters can be difficult to predict and why campaigns invest significant resources to reach this critical segment of the electorate.
Because swing voters tend to vote for candidates who appear honest, virtuous and capable, they would benefit from clear, objective criteria on how to judge character. America might not be as divided as it is if more voters made voting decisions like swing voters do.
Make America Better’s Role in Educating Voters on Judging Character
Voters who lack knowledge of political candidates’ character are not fully informed voters. Voters who vote on the basis of party loyalty are not fully informed about policies and political candidates’ character. Voters who vote on the basis of party loyalty and self interest are sorely hindered in their ability to choose wise, thoughtful, compassionate, humble leaders. The consequence of voter ignorance is bad government, social and political division, and injustice.
Good democratic government is a three-legged stool: Character, party and policy.
The only remedy for ignorance is education. Voters need to be taught how to judge character or America will remain handicapped in it social/political division. Consider these quotes from A House Divided written by Pearl Buck:
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
In this great house where humanity resides, division weakens the foundation and undermines the purpose.
The strength of a house lies not in its structure, but in the unity of its inhabitants.
When division infiltrates a household, chaos replaces harmony and love becomes scarce.
A divided house is a breeding ground for discontent, resentment, and pain.
When individuals focus on their differences rather than their shared commonalities, a house becomes divided.
Exemplary political leadership is necessary to guide America from division to unity. Exemplary leadership can be found only in leaders with exemplary character. The problem for America is that Americans do not know what exemplary character looks like. If Americans did know how to identify exemplary character, they would vote for political candidates who exhibit exemplary character. Someone needs to start teaching Americans how to identify exemplary character: First in themselves and then in their elected leaders.
Up until the mid 1900s, teaching on character was a feature of public education in America. But teaching on character changed after religion co-opted character in terms of religious values. Therefore, any teaching on character today must emerge from the private, secular sector. Government and religion are not reliable teachers of what character is or how to acquire it.
Make America Better audaciously presumes to begin to fill the gap in educating the public about character and virtue.
Americans need to get smart about judging character so they can vote for leaders with character. This is not a quick fix, but America will only continue its downward slide if American voters remain ignorant about the importance of good character in their own lives and in government.
The big idea behind Make America Better is to elevate character as an essential factor in choosing elected officials. This does not mean that there is no place for party affiliation or policy discussion in government. Party affiliation and policy discussion are baked-in features of democracy. It just means that, over time, the issue of character of elected officials has been degraded and minimized by three influences:
Partisan loyalty
Emphasis on policy
Charismatic leadership
There will always be political parties and there will always be policy differences over which reasonable men/women will disagree, but people with good character know how to resolve policy differences to achieve outcomes that benefit all Americans.
Elected officials with good character will always legislate for the common good. Elected officials with bad character will always legislate for self interest and special interest groups.
The reason people don’t trust government is that it has too many charismatic politicians who lack virtue and good character. America will not be united until politicians with bad character are replaced with politicians of good character.
The true character of political candidates may not emerge until they are in office. By that time, it is too late because it is impossible to impeach elected officials for bad character. This argues strongly for judging character before voting to avoid voters’ remorse.
Voters who do their due diligence by evaluating character of elected officials before voting will still have to live with the consequences when uninformed voters elect officials with bad character, but that consequence is the reason for early education about the benefits of evaluating character on an ongoing basis so that judgments of good or bad character can be made before more damage is done.
How to judge character is a delicate matter. Lacking clear guidelines, well-meaning but ignorant voters will use their best, subjective judgment and vote for external, human qualities instead of evaluating internal, invisible qualities of the heart that do not change and are much better predictors of how elected officials will perform while in office.
Fortunately there is research ( https://positivepsychology.com/classification-character-strengths-virtues/) that provides useful guidelines about basic virtues that can help voters evaluate character. These virtues include:
Virtue of Wisdom
Virtue of Courage
Virtue of Humanity
Virtue of Justice
Virtue of Temperance
Virtue of Transcendence
Each of these virtues will be topics of posts in Make the World Better. Other posts will also aid judgment of character. Most future posts will be based on 24 character strengths identified by Positive Psychology:
Once these posts are distributed, it will be up to journalists and concerned citizens to share the posts and principles of good character broadly in their unique family, work, political, religious and social media circles. Make America Better provides the curriculum, but journalists and everyday Americans are the students and teachers. Here are a few examples of what they can do:
Media articles on character and how to judge it.
Media exposure of political candidates’ character qualities.
Political pundits and social commentators discuss political candidates’ character qualities — both good and bad.
Social scientists publicly discuss political candidates’ character — both good and bad.
Political parties vet candidates for character qualities and discipline people in office when they exhibit bad character.
Voters alert political candidates that character is a factor by which they vet candidates.
Voters rebuke elected politicians when they exhibit bad character
Voters affirm elected politicians when they exhibit good character.
Educational institutions teach about character and how to judge it.
Religious organizations teach how to judge character from a biblical perspective.
Individual voters share the principles of good character on social media.
Individual voters practice the principles of good character in their own lives.
Individual voters teach the principles of good character to their friends and family.
Obviously this is only a short list of strategies for raising the quality of character in America, but it is a good start. The general objective is to get character on everyone’s radar so that everyone will monitor their own character and consciously work to improve it so that they are mindful of character when voting.
References for Further Study
Virtue and Character: https://tz7.4d5.myftpupload.com/philosophy-2/essays-on-how-to-live-and-thrive/virtue-and-character/
CharacterPlus creating a world where positive character is universal
Robin Gates: https://robingates.net/misc/character-should-matter-in-elections/
Robin Gates: https://robingates.net/philosophy-how-to-live-and-thrive/
Positive Psychology Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues: https://positivepsychology.com/classification-character-strengths-virtues/
This is not meant to be abusive, but it's hard not to be dismissive of this topic and the article. If over the last 20 years you've been anywhere near the US military or Republican politics then you have seen an endless stream of public and written remarks on how essential character is to everything, and how the people who have character are so very special. None of these people with character ever stopped the slow rolling disasters that were the US involvement in Afghanistan and the election of Donald Trump, so forgive me for being utterly skeptical of character.
Only the worst people talk about character all the time. It's a vehicle for them to lie about themselves and others. People who are really concerned with character just act with integrity and shut the fuck up about it.