Trust And Politics
Lack of trust is a reoccurring theme
through out the three cases. One might ask,
why you need trust in any civil
society? Lack of trust in a civil society has
the society with no real
stability. Trust in authority is lacking in each case.
The approval
rating for Bill Clinton is high. Does this mean that most Americans
trust
Bill Cliton? Most polls would tell that trust is a serious issue. So, what
is
the consequences of Americans not having trust in there president? It
can’t
be to bad because the economy is doing great and the budget and
finally
balanced. Most Americans are happy so what is the problem? The lack
of trust is
a direct correlation with weak and/or illegitimate authority.
Trust with our
president has always been a sensitive issue. Richard Nixion
broke that trust
with the country and sealed the fate for himself and his
party for a short term.
No one really understood why Nixon had ordered
the break in of the democratic
offices in the first place. What made matters
worse is Nixion never came out and
admitted his mistake even when the
evidence was overwhelming. Clinton’s case
has some similarities to it. While
he finally did come out and admit what he had
done he showed little remorse
and accusations still remain about a cover up. The
lack of trust in a
political position in this country tends to the norm. It is
created and
redefined every day in Washington with a political figure. This
creates an
image and a strong stereotype for all political figures. This in turn
hurts
all of our civil society. Without the trust then how do you have
the
legitimate authority to lead the country. Most would say that
Clinton’s
leadership really is not the question but his judgment is. To me,
that is a
contradiction and that poor judgment leads to poor leadership. His
poor judgment
leads to his ethics and morals that he has. People with weak
family values will
have a hard time trusting Cliton with just recognition of
their own problems.
The lack of trust is not just with Cliton in the
impeachment arguments. All of
the political system seems to be lacking
credibility. How mush faith do people
have that their representative will
represent their opinion and not act in the
best interest of their party? Who
in all this has the best interest in the
country? If Congress does not
represent the majority and decides on the rational
of what party they are in
then it is a illegitimate use of authority.
Cananada’s theme in the early
part of the book was an issue with trust. In
such a community, trust was not
apparent and was earned. The lack of trust went
further then authority. In
his neighborhood trust was earned the hard way by a
serious of tests. The
policy matrix in that community dictates that trust when
earned is essential
for survival. Trust within sub cultures of the society also
lead to survival.
Even with individual families trust was earned. Geoffrey
Canada’s mother
sent his bothers out to retrieve a jacket to prove that the
family could
trust in each other in adversity. Federal mandates dictated massive
efforts
to extent efforts to improve the equality of the educational
opportunity. A
lack of trust was apparent in Hamiltion High in the 60’s and
70’s. This
was in part do to the end of segregation of schools. At such a
great time of
transition there were so many outside influences trying to control
the policy
matrix. Most notable was the federal government mandating the
segregation.
The lack of shared values during the transition played a crucial
role in the
process. The civil rights was suppose to be a trickle down effect
from the
federal government. The problem there is that not all respected
government
officials believed in equality for education. Conflict arose and with
it side
were drawn. Ho could the government decide on what a "moral
education" is
when such confusion existed on what morals were for many
political figures.
The lack of shared values weighed heavily with trust of many
just to provide
a safe educational environment. The lack of values can be an
argument traced
back to the Clinton’s scandal. Who is to say that Clinton
himself did not
help dictate what many people believe is a society that is
severely lacking
values. To many, he began this process early when he answered
what kind of
undergarment he wore or when he admitted to trying marijuana even
when he
didn’t inhale. Shared values was the theme in Sturgis’s educational
mission.
Sturgis was an example of Grants of a school that had a strong
positive
ethos. They had a strong ethos because the parents, staff, and
faculty all had
shared the belief that education was development in not just
academic but in
emotional and mental development. These shared values were
evident with the
quality of work that the faculty put in and the amount of
trust that the parents
had. Parents understood the role of the educators and
teachers demonstrated
their commitment during meeting when they were
carefully prepared to talk and
help assess every student. The positive ethos
represented the enduring shared
values and character at Surges. At the heart
of the ethos was trust with
legitimate use of power. The parents had strong
trust with the leadership at the
school. They recognize that the leaders of
the schools were chosen because"they best exemplify values and that they are the
best of us, persons capable
of symbolizing tradition." How many people would
agree that Bill Clinton is
capable of symbolizing American tradition