The Upbringing Test

When I was a child, I was taught that character and integrity define a man. If I had behaved like Donald Trump as a child, I would have been beaten.

My father was a diplomat. He understood that your word is your equity. If you cannot be trusted, you lose your seat at the table. If you threaten or try to bully your friends, you find yourself alone in a room with your enemies.

Today we see a different standard. Donald Trump uses threats as a primary tool. He lies with the frequency of a breath. The defense from his supporters is always the same. They say it is just his style. They say it is how he negotiates. They say we should take him seriously but not literally.

This is a surrender. It is a failure of leadership. It is a failure of the press. It is a failure of regular Americans. We have decided that character and decency no longer matters. But what does that leave us with?

The Generational Debt

We must consider what our children are learning from Trump. If we accept this behavior as justified because it "gets results," we are destroying the next generation's moral foundation.

How will they learn to respect each other? If the President of the United States can threaten his way to a goal, why should a child bother with the hard work of earned success? We are teaching them that power is the ability to bully, rather than the responsibility to work hard. We are raising a generation to believe that integrity is a weakness and that leverage is the only truth.

Our Most Valuable Assets

As a conservative, I believe institutions are the bedrock of prosperity. However, the most important institutions we own are not made of brick and mortar. They are values, integrity and respect.

These are the invisible contracts that allow a society to function. When the truth becomes transactional, order falls apart. Investors do not put capital into a racket. They put it into a system governed by the rule of law. When we accept a leader who treats the law as a suggestion and respect as a punchline, we burn our own equity.

The Bottom Line

A society that excuses the decay of character eventually experiences the decay of its institutions. We are teaching the next generation that integrity is for losers.

If conservatives do not carry this banner, then who will?