COMPASS ERRORS, OR NO COMPASS?

“Just close your eyes and pretend it’s all a bad dream.  That’s how I get by.”

Captain Jack Sparrow

Every ship’s captain needs a compass to help him navigate from point A to point B without running into point C.  There are all kinds of compasses, and all compasses are subject to errors.  These errors have fancy names like deviation, variation and precession.  Some of the errors are systemic, others are external.  Regardless of what they are called, they all have the same effect.  They cause the compass to read incorrectly.  Unless the captain makes the necessary corrections for these errors, he is practically guaranteed to miss point B and run smack into point C.  There is a hilarious scene in “Pirates of the Caribbean” where Captain Jack, after taking the helm of his beloved Black Pearl, consults an old bearing compass to set the ship on course.  He flips the cover off the compass with great flair, and peers down at the dial.  The dial begins to spin in crazy circles, and Captain Jack’s eyes widen comically as he realizes that  this compass isn’t going to help him navigate anywhere.  He purses his lips, barks orders at the crew, and then hauls away at the helm, trying to  create the appearance of command while knowing that he  doesn’t have the faintest idea where the ship is headed.  Sound familiar?

To steer the ship of state, a President needs a moral compass.  The Cambridge English Dictionary defines the term “moral compass” as “a natural feeling that makes people know what is right and what is wrong and how they should behave.”  A person’s moral compass produces basic integrity.  Part and parcel of basic integrity is acceptance of the notion that truthfulness is generally considered to  be right, and willful falsity is generally wrong.  The overwhelming weight of the evidence establishes that  Mr. Trump rejects that notion.  The flap over Trump’s baseless allegation that former President Obama had Trump’s telephones tapped illustrates the point.  All the available evidence established that Trump’s claim was completely false.  Even if one accepts the facially preposterous notion that he didn’t know that his claim was false when he initially made it, the fact that he continued to stand by the claim in the face of all credible evidence to the contrary demonstrated at best a willful refusal to accept the truth, or, more likely, a cynical effort to advance what he knew to be completely false in order to achieve a personal political objective, namely, diversion of public attention away from his growing Russian connection problem.

We must recognize that there are occasions when it is in the national interest for a President to be less than truthful.  This is a dangerous world, and despite our collective desire for a free and open society, there are undoubtedly times when circumstances require a President to either withhold the truth, or deliberately deny the truth.  Trying to apply a black or white test to truthfulness when those circumstances present themselves can only lead to a philosophical quagmire.  What we can accept as a society is that even though Presidential lying may be inherently wrong, there may be situations where the circumstances justify a deviation from the norm.  Note the world “deviation”, an error affecting the compass.  Those instances cannot fairly said to be evidence of a President’s lack of a moral compass.  Instead, they are errors which a competent President must allow for to steer the desired course.

What can’t be accepted are lies to preserve one’s own personal or political skin, such as Nixon’s daily denials during the Watergate crisis, or Clinton’s perjury regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.  Those were lies born not of any desire to protect the national interest.  They were lies born of personal corruption, and revealed a basic lack of integrity.  Whether or not Nixon’s and Clinton’s lies suggested that neither had any moral compass, or were they just instances where external circumstances caused errors in their compasses which they were unable to correct, is subject to debate.  In either event, their lies destroyed their personal credibility, and damaged the office of the Presidency.  So far, Trump’s avalanche of lies has had nothing to do with the national interest.

It is also true that our elected officials, including the President, are mere humans.  They are subject to the same daily failures that we all experience.  Little white lies, and even big bad lies, are part of the human condition.  But personal integrity demands that one at least makes his or her best effort to be honest.  The compass may point you in the right direction, but it cannot make you follow the path.  Trump’s willful disregard for the truth on a daily basis about all things, great and small, suggests that he makes no effort to be honest; that he simply does not accept generally recognized norms of right and wrong.  In other words, he is inherently dishonest.  He has no moral compass.

So how can passengers on the ship of state deal with a captain who is inherently dishonest?  Captain Sparrow offers good advice:  “Me, I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest.  Honestly.”  In short, expect a dishonest man to be dishonest.  Better to be disappointed than surprised.  Believe him at your peril.  The wiser course demands a healthy skepticism of anything that Trump, or his administration, claims to be true.