"The whole art of government consists in being honest"

Hat tip to Ron Anger, the editor of Magnum (a South African gun magazine), for most of the ideas in this post, which is based on his April 2009 editorial.

Anger tells the story of Thomas Jefferson, the third American president, who after his inauguration returned to his lodgings to find that there was no space left at the dinner table. He retired to his room without dinner, accepting that he received no special treatment. I say no more.

Anger continues with a quote from Thomas Jefferson:

"The whole art of government consists in being honest."

I again say no more.

Anger then suggests that vote-seeking politicians be challenged to answer "True" or "False" to Jefferson's words. If "False", don't vote for them. If "True", ask them how they and their their party would re-introduce honesty to government.

I would add that I would vote for any politician of any party who exemplified the Jeffersonian qualities of honesty, modesty and self-sacrifice. I realise that sadly, if those are my standards, I would probably vote for no-one, not even myself (at least I'm honest, although there seems to be a logical contradiction here).