"You want people to run the government who are honest."

[Septua]

I was watching 'Morning Joe' and there was a segment with a reporter doing some man-on-the-street interviews with GOP voters regarding Geo Santos . One guy said Santos didn't murder anybody, he just fibbed a little but most were highly critical, with one lady saying "you want people to run the government who are honest."

My first thought was, with that criterion for selecting a candidate, how is she voting Republican in the first place?

[spanone]

1. I watched that report and wondered the same...trmp lied and continues to lie constantly....

It is a cult.

[Ocelot II]

2. So for some GOP voters, the candidate actually has to murder someone

to be considered unelectable?

No wonder we got TFG.

[NCDem47]

9. And even if a R murders someone...

Then the goalposts will be moved again. "The victim deserved it."

ALWAYS a rationalization with those nuts.

There...

is...

no...

bottom.

[doc03]

3. I saw that too. That's how low the bar is to be a Republican after TFG, not murdering someone.

I am sure if he said he did murder someone they would find a way to justify it. The way TFG has conducted his life as a mob boss I have no doubt
he has been responsible for some himself.

[Eyeball_Kid]

4. The Golden God once said

something to the effect of: If it's "vote fraud" that you're addressing, you don't have to behave according to the same rules. You can be lawless if your cause is "just."

So GOPers don't really have much of a moral code if they follow the Golden God. He can justify murder. He can justify anything.

[Wounded Bear]

6. That is the religious underpinning of what fascism does..

Basically fascism is amoral in practice, but they justify it by including just enough religion to say that "God wants you to do it." With that, there are no ethics or morals to act as guardrails. It's whatever "God's representative" says it is.

[EYESORE 9001]

5. Honesty? How quaint.

For MAGAts and fellow travelers, the overarching concern is that their candidates will harm their perceived enemies once elected. They’ll even tolerate some personal hardship if they think their enemies are getting hurt worse than they are.

[modrepub]

7. Even "Honest" People

have failings. Our current system lacks "skin in the game". In other words, the politicians we elect rarely share in the same risks as those who elect them. How many rules are politicians (of both parties) subject to or more importantly immune from? Do elected politicians who have access to lots of information and policy decisions make let's say stock trades while they are in office, or have family members or close friends in on this information so they can profit by it? How many that do suffer any real consequences?

You want to really clean up politics, subject elected officials to the same ethical standards as the rest of us have to follow. Put some teeth in the punishment. Make their salaries reflective of their constituents they represent. You want to charge speaking fees or sell books, fine, get approval from your employer (your constituents) to take on a second job. Their healthcare expenses should reflect some average of what their constituents are subject to. They should be forced to go to doctors/hospitals in the area they represent (unless its an emergency and then should be subject to their constituents' health plan's service agreements for out of area coverage). You want to approve some military action, someone in your immediate family should be in the military or drafted into the military at that point.

I'm sure there are others. You can lie all you want; all politicians have that ability, some more than others. But the best way to "align" politicians' interests with the people they represent is to force them to share the same consequences of their actions the rest of us do.

[Wounded Bear]

8. You want that, you need completely independent justice and judicial systems...

Tough to get to, and too easy to circumvent, as trump just demonstrated. He nearly succeeded.

[gab13by13]

11. He has succeeded so far. FIFY.

[modrepub]

13. The SC Doesn't Have Any Ethics Set Up

Again, judges have to be subject to the same rules as the rest of us. I work in the executive branch. We have ethics rules, ethics training (yearly) and other safeguards in place. The peons have to do this but I sincerely doubt the very higher ups have anything in place.

Yes, it's easy to bypass these rules IF you are not subject to the same rules the rest of us are. That's the problem here. Some folks are circumventing the rules with no consequences. They lack skin in the game that would subject them to the same rules as the rest of us. I will say there needs to be safeguards to protect elected officials from BS charges. Does having an extramarital affair mean more than sharing or enacting policy that you can act on for profit? IDK, but we need some reforms soon.

[gab13by13]

10. The days of arresting Congress members are over.

Matt Gaetz asked for a pardon for his sex trafficking, turns out he didn't need it because he is a member of Congress.

The days of arresting former high ranking officials are over, Mark Meadows committed blatant voter fraud and was not arrested.

[Samrob]

12. As a GOPer, she probably meant "We want people who are smart enough to hide their dishonesty." nt

[Irish_Dem]

14. Yes she meant candidates need to hide their crimes better.