By DemocracyRules
Many pundits are already declaring Edwards’ political career to be over. David Bonior, a former Michigan congressman was Edwards' campaign manager for his 2008 presidential run. Bonoir said today, "Thousands of friends of the senators and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him and he's let him down...they've been betrayed by his action... you can't lie in politics and expect to have people's confidence."
Here is a comment Edwards made about Bill Clinton: "I think this President has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen."
But Edwards could recover from this personally if he did the right things. People can recover from very great moral disasters. But to achieve meaningful redemption, the person must accept responsibility for the consequences of his actions. He must also take action to correct the consequences of his actions.
We have all done stupid and immoral things in our lives. Moral guidance tells us to do everything we can to avoid doing those things, and if we do an immoral thing we must take responsibility for it.
The Austrian-born psychiatrist Viktor Frankl described how to do it. Frankl was a Jewish survivor of the Nazi death camps.
Frankl did not invent this method, but he articulated five clears steps. Before beginning, one must believe in the value of morality and ethics. Not everyone does. For example, Karl Marx exhorted his followers to ignore morality and ethics. Marx said, “But communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience." – The Communist Manifesto. Marx replaced morality with expediency.
Step One is to acknowledge fully to yourself what you have done. “This above all, to thine own self be true.” John Edwards has not done this. He undertook to admit what he did when it was no longer possible to lie. Thus, he has not been honest in revealing what he did.
This was not a private little secret, because his conduct reflects directly on his capacity to hold public office. The electorate that chooses him has a right to know everything about the candidate that could reflect on the candidates’ capacity to do the job and serve the public.
Step Two is to make known to others what you have done.
Step Three is to go the people that you have injured by your actions and apologize for what you have done. One must think well before you doing this, one must consider all the ramifications of the act.
Step Four is to ask the injured parties what you could do in recompense for the act. What can be done as restitution, to at least ameliorate their suffering?
Step Five is to do the restitution, and do it for as long as it takes to get it done.
Only these steps can bring hope of recompense.
Psychiatrists often see patients who seek to bypass these steps. Some patients believe it is cheaper and easier to follow up immoral actions with psychotherapy to fix the guilty feelings.
Frankl pointed out that there is no such thing as a moral free ride.
Regarding Edwards, what I see is that he did not even get beyond step one. He replaced morality with expedience and tried to get away with it.
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