Those in public office often have to face the dilemma of defining what loyalty to their boss means. Loyalty is one of those nebulous values that can be set in various ways, depending on the moral standards of the persons who have to make difficult choices when they are called to support a particular line of action by their leaders.

The book by former FBI director James Comey entitled A Higher Loyalty gives a gripping narrative of the heartache that people in high public office have to endure when their political masters demand a brand of loyalty that defies common sense and ethical integrity.

In the business world, many top executives face similar difficult choices when they have to decide between what is right for their company and what is good for the community they serve.

Comey’s principal theme in his book is the constant struggle and the corrosive collateral effects that he and other top public officials have to deal with when choosing between loyalty to an individual over truth and the rule of law. Only a person with a background of moral strength like Comey can act as the voice of conscience in his country where some political leaders decide that they can do whatever favours their plans as long as they believe that public opinion is behind them.

Comey was cruelly honest when he wrote: “We are experiencing a dangerous time in our country with a political environment where basic facts are disputed, fundamental truth is questioned, lying is normalised and unethical behaviour is ignored, excused and rewarded.”

Politicians in many democracies seem to be more interested in boosting their egos and getting re-elected rather than governing in a way that provides solutions to the many problems that most people face in their daily lives.

The short-term objectives of politicians like Donald Trump can only be achieved if “the silent circle of assent” as Comey calls is solidly in place. The boss must be in complete control. The inner circle must take an unofficial oath of loyalty to the boss. The us-versus-them mentality must prevail at all times. Lying about all things whether large or small is encouraged to serve some code of loyalty that puts the political administration above morality and the truth.

The inner circle must take an unofficial oath of loyalty to the boss

As a recent leader in The Economist argued: “Submissive loyalty to one man and the rage he both feeds off and cites is a threat to the shining democracy that the world has often taken as its example. When power dominates truth, criticism becomes betrayal”.

It will be mistaken to think that such perverse interpretation of loyalty is a new US trait. The democratic world presently lacks political leaders with strong moral and ethical values that are based on serving their country rather than enhance their political careers.

It is sad that many potentially good leaders prefer to shun the world of politics because they cannot put up with the Machiavellian machinations that characterise the political world in many Western democracies.

Those already in politics, and still aim to do what is right for their country rather than what is expedient for their party, can be easily discouraged. Some decide to seek more rewarding careers especially if they have the qualifications and skills to live independently outside politics.

In his book Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff wrote that Trump: “Invariably thought people found him irresistible”. Narcissistic delusions obscure the minds of politicians when the wind is blowing in their favour, and opinion polls show that fickle public opinion approves their governance.

The quest for money and power has replaced the fundamental innate values that many democracies were built on in the past decades. It is interesting that Comey’s college thesis on religion and politics was based on Reinhold Niebuhr’s argument that ‘the Christian must enter the political realm in some way to pursue justice, which keeps the strong from consuming the weak’.

I argue that it is not just Christians that need to look at politics from a perspective of public service. Moral complacency can dismantle centuries of cultural and economic achievements of a democratic country. The checks and balances that must exist in every democracy must be preserved at all times because the only kind of loyalty that is acceptable is that to the common good.

Narcissistic political, as well as business leaders whose primary objective in life is the preservation of their power base and their financial well-being, will inevitably be relegated to oblivion.

johncassarwhite@yahoo.com