Are you confused?

Yesterday one of the VP candidates made this statement.

‘It’s one three letter word – JOBS!’

Although this is funny, depending on your party affiliation, it helps to point out something we overlook. It seems so many people pay more attention to the words people use rather than the actions they manifest.

Politicians are great at using words to explain away things so they appear to be innocent or in fact on the other side of an issue than they have previously stated.

‘Before I voted against it I voted for it.’

If we only base our decisions on what people say rather than on what people do, we will make a lot of mistakes. A word that describes the harmony between what someone says and does is congruence.

People get credibility and have influence as a leader by doing what they say they will do. Andy Stanley, in the book Visioneering, calls this Moral Authority. If there is a difference between your actions and your words people may vote for you but you will have difficulty getting them to trust you and follow you if you are their leader.

But I think the reason politicians continue this type of behavior is because they think they can continually talk themselves out of any situation, especially the situations that will cost them power and or money. And if others go along with the charade it makes it appear all right.

I think we get the politicians we deserve because we don’t demand more from them, not in government giveaways but in their behaviors. Could it be because we don’t demand enough of ourselves?

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time trusting politicians who say something different than what they do. I am always questioning why they can’t do what the say or why they don’t say what they do.

This has been a problem throughout history.