Good luck UT. Sorry I'm a bit late, but my exams have finished now, so I have loads of time now.
Today I shall be arguing that moral character
is an apprropiate factor in determing a candidates worth in relation to political office.
Resolved: Moral character is an appropriate factor in determing a candidates worth in relation to political office.
Introduction
Throughout history, there have (obviously) been namy political leaders, some more successful than others, some more important in defining the world order as we know it than others. However, what quality did they all have (mostly all, there some exceptions) to be elected into the office in the first place? Not through the strength of the policy, although that had something to do with it. No, I believe that the main strength that led people to vote for leaders of their country was their
appeal or moral chracter.
I say this because you can have all the great policies in the world, but unless you have something that people can relate to, or some charisma, then no-one will listen to you, or at least give you the time to speak your mind.
I am fairly crap at doing opening posts, as my earlier debates will testify, but I'll do one example of this, then let UT do his thing.
Example:Richard Nixon
I think this is a fairly obvious example to use. I'll keep it short and sweet, because you probably don't need me to lecture you. Simply put, when he became President, enough people liked the guy enough to vote for him, which means that he must have appealed to the genreal public. Although I realise his election came after the death of President Kennedy, but the basic principle is the same. He ended Americas involvement in the Vietnam War, something that in itself increased the opinion in a good way of voters. However then came the Watergate scandal, and gradually people started to support other candidates. Why? Because his
moral character was under question, and the public deserted his political ideas, leading to his resignation.
This example alone justifies to me that when judging a potential political candidate, moral character is a more than appropiate factor in determining their suitablity, because the moral character gives us an indication of where we can fully trust the politician concerned. And after all, isn't trust what we really want from our politicians?
