“The integrity of men is to be measured by their conduct, not by their professions.”
Junius

>Authors Note
This article is a revision of my earlier essay entitled "Integrity Lost." It was rewritten in response to requests and recommendations to make it more appealing to traditional print publications and certain political organizations.<

Integrity is defined by dictionary.com as follows: “adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.” To say someone has lived a life of integrity, or to say someone is a person of integrity, is to say that he or she is someone who upholds another word, honor. They are someone with no shady agendas, who does not operate on a purely selfish level with no regard for how they treat others. They are someone whose word can be trusted with few or no doubts.

With the death of former President Jimmy Carter came perhaps inevitable comparisons between him and the other men who have occupied the White House. With the date of the second inauguration of Donald Trump falling so soon afterward, those comparisons illuminate the stark differences between them as both private citizens and as President.

Carter was President of the United States during my coming of age years. I always liked him and admired him for his basic decency, which was a breath of fresh air after the shame and resignation of Richard Nixon. I've long contended that the only reason he's not considered a “great” president is rooted in the fact that he was simply too decent for the cut-throat political climate that is Washington. He governed from his sense of fair play and refused to lower himself to the intrigues of those he tried to work with. It's sad to think that he is considered to have been a weak president because he was a moral man with high principles, and expected those with whom he dealt to be the same. I believe instead it marks him as a man of strength that he refused to prostitute himself, but rather to serve America first and foremost, instead of serving himself.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, did not represent the United States with the same degree of honor, and I don't believe he has changed his leopard's spots as we approach his second term as our president. His appearances to have served the American people were just that, appearances, when the reality was that everything he did was for personal gain rather than for those who he professed to represent.

Honor is the hallmark of integrity and few who accept the definition of it will disagree that, for all his other faults, Carter was a man of honor, a humanitarian, who approached leadership as an opportunity to make the world a better place for all people. He did so honestly and never deviated from it, often to his determent. His accomplishments while in office all reflect that edict, from desegregating key government positions to promoting peace in the Middle East. His dedication to civil rights was such that more than one foreign government, especially Russia, condemned him, even as dissidents within those countries were emboldened by his convictions. Trump, on the other hand, has promoted political and personal decisiveness and open racism in this country. With the exception of leaders such as Vladamir Putin and Kim Yon Sung, he has deliberately insulted and alienated our allies. Indeed, he actively pursued Putin's and Kim Jon Un's approval in direct defiance of American intelligence. He has done very little to promote peace and democracy anywhere in the world.

And then there is the question of honesty. Jimmy Carter was a president who dealt with the country truthfully. If there was any dishonesty on the part of his administration it was by exclusion, a necessary part of maintaining national security. Yet this man was honest enough to admit to the country at large that he had harbored lustful thoughts for women other than his wife. He did so regretfully and with true humility, baring his soul to everyone whether they cared or not. He wanted as few secrets between himself and the American public as possible. He accepted blame for government failings as well as for his accomplishments.

Compare that with Donald Trump who has debunked his own declared dedication to personal morality with numerous women, who has compulsively lied from the moment he took office by exaggerating the number of people who attended his inauguration, and continues to spout whatever rhetoric he deems necessary to cause discord. He has never accepted blame for any of his many failings. Rather he has always placed the blame on others while giving himself far more credit for achievements than he was entitled to, even inventing some outright.

With regard to policies, it would be difficult to make a fair comparison given the differences in the world between the late 1970s and today. For instance, who in 1979 could have conceived of suicide bombers on the scale of 9/11? It wasn't until the Marine barracks in Beirut was bombed on October 23, 1983, that Americans began to become fully aware of the threat. When hostages were taken in Tehran in 1979, it was assumed that the militants retained some degree of humanity and negotiations were approached as such. We now know that to have been a gross miscalculation, but an understandable one given the time in which it happened. In the end the hostages were released but, not as many think, because the militants feared Reagan, but to put a final humiliation on the American president and show the world how weak he was perceived to be. And, sadly, it seems to have worked.

While in office, Carter created the Departments of Energy and Education, deregulated the trucking and airline industries (some would consider these actions as strongly Republican in nature), reformed civil service, and expanded the national park system, protecting 103 million acres of Alaskan lands. The list of such credits given to him and his administration can go on and on, each one of which was with an eye toward benefiting America and the American people. Donald Trump has systematically undermined, circumvented, destroyed, or pledged to destroy, most of these programs, plus many too numerous to list, all in the name of money rather than humanity.

It's ironic that we've lost such a decent man as Carter, whose true greatness was unquestioned in his continued service to humanity long after losing the presidency, when the office that he held so faithfully is soon to be held by a white supremacist, misogynistic, convicted felon who has done absolutely nothing for the country but cause discord by spreading his own poisonous rhetoric. I listen in disbelief to those who defend him and what he supposedly achieved for our country when he has done precious little in the service of the average citizen, much less those in serious need. He has proven time and again when the chips are down that he has absolutely no regard for the average American, and even less for those who desperately need assistance. As an example, he has said he would prefer to do away with social security all together yet now he promises instead to do away with taxing social security benefits. Well and good. I agree it would be a wonderful thing for those who depend upon every cent of their social security income. But what better way to undermine and ultimately destroy it than to stop taxing social security without a means of replacing the money it brings in (such as taxing those so wealthy their sole worth alone could finance the whole program)? His priority is and always has been for those with obscene wealth, perhaps because he himself is obscenely wealthy. Or is he? Given his refusal to openly and honestly make his finances available to us, how do we know?

I have never been wrong in my estimation of Donald Trump and have watched with horror as he has done everything I predicted exactly as I predicted he would. As the head of his own cult, he is not going to be satisfied until he has total control of our country by destroying our democracy. And if it takes a civil war to accomplish that, then so be it. At least he can then call himself a great war president in the bargain.

c. 2025