Virtuous Living Through Politics — Trump & The 2020 Election

Hi, I’m Paul Krismer, I’m your happiness expert, and this week’s version of how to be happy is going to be all about the qualities of a virtuous life. I know that sounds a bit weird, but the truth is, there’s really good academic research done on the fact that when we live a life that reflects the virtues that we would all agree exist in the world, that in fact, it makes us happier. I guess it’s obvious on the one hand that when we’re behaving badly, if we’re lying, and cheating, and doing all kinds of things that make us scoundrels in the world, well, we’re probably less likely to be happy. The research on this has been brought to the point where it’s just very demonstrable, it’s very evident from the research, and we can even look at tools that are now commercially available like VIA Character Strengths where people can do a survey of their own most naturally expressed virtues and then work in those areas more and more. Through the awareness of them, and actively living them, we become happier people. I’ll maybe put a link in the description to that bit of research.

You know, the interesting thing in this video that’s maybe intended for my friends in the United States more than anybody else, election day is just a couple days away, and it is an opportunity for America to express its virtue both corporately, as an organization, as a country, as a state, and individually in those people who vote. I frankly think we must be compelled to consider our behavior, and whether it is virtuous or not, and that’s what this week’s video is all about.

As a coach, public speaker, and best-selling author, I teach topics just like this one all around the world. So stay tuned and I’ll give you practical tools that you can use to make both yourself and those around you both happier and more successful. So we know virtues make us happier. When we behave in ways that are morally and ethically, um, good. I know that’s a difficult description, but where most of us would agree that certain virtues are universally good things, the idea of fairness, of respect for others, of compassion, and honesty. These are basic values that we all share, and when we live that way, we become virtuous people.

America is challenged in a way that it hasn’t in my lifetime, and I’m an avid political junkie. I watch and pay attention to politics all the time. America has never been more challenged, not in all of my lifetime, 52 years. America is at a real crossroads in this upcoming election. I don’t want to be particularly political, but let’s be obvious about some aspects of what we can observe in the political spectrum that’s so out of character. There’s always spin and cheating and a little bit of lying in politics, in America as well as everywhere else, but in the United States right now, the Trump administration has been an unprecedented organization, administration, in terms of its poor expression of virtuous behavior. I don’t think I need to go on and on and on about this.

You know, they played down the virus in an intentional way. Trump is on tape admitting that, and then he keeps saying over and over that we’re rounding the corner when in fact there’s record hospitalizations for COVID going on. That kind of behavior, not only is it dishonest, it’s so lacking in basic human decency to encourage people to be taking the right defenses for their own health, and the health of the people that they love. But in fact, Trump’s the only person in America who’s actively hosting super spreader events. He’s the only guy who’s got mass events where people are maskless and not social distancing. We know from the White House super spreader event and from other campaign rallies that people are getting hurt, and some people inevitably are dying from these events, and that can hardly be considered virtuous.

We know that Trump has on record, misogynistic dialogue or commentary, if not actions. With 20 some women alleging sexual assault on the part of the president, it’s probably actions too, but at minimum we know it’s misogynistic language when he says he’s going to grab women by the [__]. There’s just no getting around that, that he owns a woman’s body because he wants them. I mean it’s atrocious. There’s all kinds of obviously dog whistles to racism and racist behaviors on the part of this president. There’s just kind of no denying it when he incites violence and hatred for certain groups like Mexicans as rapists or inner-city people as all thugs, protesters legitimately protesting, and the behaviors he’s had. There’s just no question that some of that stuff reflects a hate-filled, divided view of who good Americans are.

And even the disrespect that he’s shown for military service members, which is beyond the pale. How can we not, even if we don’t agree with what the military has always been involved in, we can only think that people who sign up to contribute to military service are honorable people. I have a little bit of a selfish one here too, that my son’s in the military reserves here in Canada. I think he’s doing it for very noble reasons, and military service members, on the whole, are not “losers” and “suckers” as this president has said.

Then, you know, there’s just the run-of-the-mill lying that just every day when that man opens his mouth, he makes up stuff that’s just utter [__]. You take just one example, there’s so many we could give of him saying that China is paying for the tariffs that he’s put in on imported goods from China. It’s just a lie. The basic fact is those people, Americans who import the Chinese goods, they pay the tariffs and they pass on those costs to American consumers. It just stands to plain reason that that is true. There’s no Chinese person being billed for those tariffs, American companies are paying the tariffs. It’s like him saying that the Mexicans are going to pay for the wall. These absurd lies, it’s gotten to the point where well, it’s revolting, it’s disgusting to see the way that this administration has behaved.

This is not an attack on Republican values or Republicans in general. There’s a lot of good arguments for traditional Republican values that I think are a legitimate part of political debate. Republicans want small government, they want low taxation, they stress responsibilities in society versus the claiming of rights that people should receive from the state. Republicans talk about the responsibilities and ethical behaviors that people need to be protected and a part of a good and just society. All those values that Republicans traditionally have expressed are totally legitimate parts of the political debate. So I am not attacking the right wing or attacking Republicans in general. I’m just looking at this administration specifically, and the Trump years as a travesty.

Those of us looking in from internationally, our hearts are crying out. This is a love letter to America, and in that vein of asking America to be its biggest, best self, I want to tell everybody who’s listening and wants to get more happiness through the expression of virtuous behavior, that there is no virtue in hate and anger. Now, that’s not to denigrate those emotions. All human emotions are valid and good emotions. When we feel hate naturally arise, or anger naturally arise, that’s okay. We want to recognize and say, “What is this? Oh, this anger and this hate, it’s because of some injustice or some travesty of ethical conduct that I’m witnessing.”

Then, the challenge is to behave virtuously in spite of those very negative emotions. Because if we go out and vote, or don’t vote, or take to the streets because of hate and anger, well, we’re part of the problem. But when we take to the streets and we vote because of our chosen virtuous behaviors, when we say, “I want to be fair. I want more respect. I want compassion. I want honesty. I want to love my fellow citizens in America,” then I can cast a vote with love intended. With, “What is the most loving thing I can do for my children and my grandchildren? For my neighbors? For the people who are suffering, whether it’s through COVID or systemic racism or any other myriad of social causes and economic pains that we’re in right now? What’s the most loving thing I can do through the expression of my democratic right to vote?”

Well, America, there is your challenge on Tuesday. You can be virtuous and the whole world is watching. And you yourselves, your future is at stake, and I hope that you do the right thing. Thanks for watching. If you like this kind of content, click the like button, subscribe to my channel for a new video every Sunday morning. Thanks so much. Bye for now.