FOREWORD
By
United States Senator John McCain
Allen Loughry has issued a reminder that there are watchdogs and whistleblowers willing to defy intimidation and do the difficult and necessary work of defending our American ideals. He approaches his work with an idealism thought impossible for someone involved in politics so many years.Few Americans believe their government to be a place of moral sanctity. Many accept corruption as the rule. Actual wrongdoing is not as flagrant as Hollywood movies would portray, but that subtlety also makes it more difficult to identify the real-life political villains. They do not lurk in the dark, dressed in black. They can be our neighbors, friends and coworkers. They are not necessarily bad people, but rather people who have been held to low standards a long time. They are merely playing the game that has evolved over years of transgressions going unchecked. Dr. Loughry is not simply making a “naughty” list. He reaches beyond his examples and poses questions that seem like black and white moral issues on the surface, but upon closer inspection we are forced to examine the other side of the coin. He points to West Virginia, the Robin Hood of states, where gold was stolen to finance separation from Virginia and the Confederate ideology of slavery and separatism. We inevitably start to question, if the only way for good to prevail is to play the corruption game, does the end justify the means, and can the virtuous path ever be the successful path? Ultimately, we find ourselves mired in Dr. Loughry’s Catch-22: to find political success it seems one has to play the game and ignore ethical quagmires, but by engaging in such behavior, one must accept the consequences of making voters apathetic and weakening our democracy.Dr. Loughry provides us with disturbing evidence of widespread dishonesty, but also supplies a remedy. I believe virtue and success can coexist, and that belief has been proven to me time and time again by many of my colleagues. We cannot deny the existence of corruption, but we shouldn’t assume that every government official is in his or her position because of backroom deals and tainted elections. In every election season there are candidates looking to highlight their records rather than their opponents’ shortcomings, and on occasion there are babies kissed without a camera in sight.Americans should vote for candidates we believe to be honorable and decent. In concert, lawmaking bodies should commit to making changes in election law that will diminish the opportunities for fraud. We may never have a perfect government, but Dr. Loughry reminds us we should never stop striving for one.
