Globally more voters than ever will head to the polls in 2024. At least 64 countries, representing a combined population of about 49% of the people in the world, will hold national elections. The results will be consequential for years to come.

In the United States, political-religious polarization continues to grow. A few days before the January 23^rd New Hampshire Primary, the right-wing organization CatholicVote.org endorsed former President Donald Trump in the Republican presidential primary. The organization sees the former U.S. president as a great leadership “General” and “Someone who knows the truth and is willing to fight for it.” It is a dangerous time when we live in a world in which everyone has an opinion that is based on little or no trustworthy information.

According to NORC — the National Opinion Research Center — at the University of Chicago, confidence in U.S. democracy remains low. Most of the public think democracy could be at risk depending on who wins the presidential election next year, including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans.

We live in a time of tremendous socio-cultural change. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, rising authoritarian “leaders” with their distorted dogmatism are a growing danger around the globe. Cheap slogans become truth statements. Fiction becomes reality. Authoritarian “leaders” — with their closed systems of power and authority — gradually or quickly shift into doing whatever they want, because too many people, anxious about social change, close their eyes, stop thinking, and unquestioningly submit to strong authoritarians who take charge but are fundamentally undemocratic, tyrannical, and immoral. As the authoritarian dictator Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945) supposedly said “How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.”

The big challenge in the 2024 elections is evaluating the socio-political ethics of candidates for political office. Honesty, human rights, human dignity, compassion, and collaboration are the values that ethically healthy leaders promote.

This week I have five observations about the character traits of ethically unhealthy leaders. They are warning signs that should alert people and call for serious pre-election reflection.

1. Ethically unhealthy leaders care more about self-interest than other-interest. They set themselves above the rules that apply to others, seeking the upper hand rather than working with others collaboratively.

2. Ethically unhealthy leaders offer fantasy in place of reality, insults in place of inspiration, and rely on fear to gain the upper hand by stirring up conflict and inciting violence.

3. For ethically unhealthy leaders, power and control are far more important than respect and civility. Their key words and actions are what threatens, belittles, blames, shames, and physically or emotionally harms others.

4. Ethically unhealthy leaders separate people into bad and good categories – “them vs us.” The bad people are dangerous. They must be isolated or eliminated.

5. Ethically unhealthy leaders ignore ethics. For them the end justifies the means. They offer the same exception to their loyal supporters who behave unethically, saying they’ve done nothing wrong.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

The challenge for all of us is to really inform people and encourage them to critically evaluate candidates. The ethical issues are much bigger than whether or not a candidate says he or she is against abortion. Yes. We need to seriously discuss the abortion questions, but in this coming election the big questions are stressing the responsibility to be informed voters, to reflect and to evaluate a candidate’s integrity, trustworthiness, and competency.

Right now, I am thinking about the observation of the U.S. American writer Isaac Asimov (1920 – 1992): “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”

I am thinking as well about the warning of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (c. 424 – 348 BCE) who wrote: “The price good people pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil people.”

Doomsday scenarios are not my thing. But our challenge is very real.

Jack