There comes a time in the political life of every country when what it needs most is a decent person at the helm of Government. Not the brightest or most scholarly person, not the most charismatic or eloquent, not one with the ‘winningest’ record in electoral contests or one who will leave the longest list of accomplishments, not a perfect person, but one who leads by example, by deeds, and not words. This person puts country before party; is guided by a moral compass — honesty, integrity, truth; worries about doing the right things more than doing the things that will increase political capital; is given to civil discourse and basic decency, bridging the contentious gap across partisan party lines. That person is not one who divides people based on their political, racial, religious or other differences, but one who is “the repairer of the breach and restorer of paths to dwell in” (Isaiah 58: 12 KJV).

For those who watched the first debate between US President Donald Trump and former Vice-President Joe Biden, the two individuals contending to be the next president of that nation in the November 3, 2020 polls, it must have been patently clear. What America needs most is a decent person to occupy the country’s highest office.

Universally, across national and cultural lines, the concept of a decent person is the very bedrock of a civil and functional society. A decent person is not synonymous with an average person or a typical person, subject as those are to variations in interpretation and conduct. A decent person is the same in Trench Town, Barbican, Ironshore, or any other community; the same in your house, my house, the school house, the business house, church house, King’s House, Gordon House, or the White House.

A decent person, although based on a hypothetical construct, is at the same time real. I need not use this limited medium to define in specific terms or to describe the attributes of a decent person. Every boy, girl, man, woman in Jamaica, if he or she were to be asked, can lead you to a decent person in his/her community — and it’s not necessarily the parson, politician, principal, businessman, or any of those with status to whom we give deference.

In English law there exists the notion of the reasonable person. In a murder case, for example, the prosecution or defence may ask, “What would a reasonable man do in a similar situation to the one in which the accused is charged?” Without seeking evidence from actual people, but instead referencing case law, jury instructions and the like (common law), the question may be answered with a degree of accuracy and to the satisfaction of all concerned, including the jury with whom the final verdict lies. In the same way, I ask my readers to answer this question: In the US presidential debate referred to earlier, how would a decent person be expected to conduct him/herself?

America, with its many imperfections, holds itself and is widely seen to be the gold standard for representational democracy in which power resides with the people through the vote, and the winner in free and fair elections represents all the people, not just those who are his or her supporters. That single debate between Trump and Biden erased credibility from the claim that America can serve as an example to fledgling democracies.

So despicable was the display it leaves one to wonder whether America has entered the Dark Ages of politics; a period similar to that following the fall of the Roman Empire in around 500 AD when it is said progress in literature, the humanities, new discoveries, culture, and government stagnated for a thousand years until the French Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment.

People will argue among themselves who won the debate, Trump or Biden. Not surprisingly, one’s opinion will tend to be in line with the candidate one favours. In politics, as with things that have an aesthetic appeal, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It is also true that idealistic concepts such as who is a decent person do not fit the paradigm of politics; a process in which the nastiest, dirtiest, most corrupt, power-hungry person could win by virtue of being the last man or woman standing, or by being able to break the rules and buy his or her way to office and power.

It may be an alien concept to politics, but I will say it again and leave the reader to ponder. There comes a time in the political life of every country when what it needs most is a decent person at the helm of Government.

For America that time is now!

hmorgan@cwjamaica.com