Bad behavior in politics

Suicide of Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich brought back memories of another gubernatorial candidate who came close to meeting the same fate a few years ago due to merciless bullying by hateful party Old Guard.

Some years ago a naive but decent doctor friend of mine decided to run for the office of the governor. When he asked my opinion, I told him frankly that politics was not for him, and that he did not have the stomach for the vitriol and hatred battle-hardened politicians of his own party would dump on him. Nevertheless, he announced his candidacy for governorship.

That evening I got a frantic phone call from him. His voice quivering with fright, he said that he had received a barrage of threatening and hateful calls from many senior party officials, including some from the St. Louis area, blasting him for his impertinence. In spite of my forewarning him, he was entirely unprepared for the kind of uncivilized and brutal behavior of people he naively looked up to. He withdrew his candidacy immediately. He underwent therapy and medical treatment to cope with the trauma of this despicable aspect of politics.

Bullying politicians have a serious defect in their character. Such defects often adversely affect their decisions and behavior as representatives of people. Most of them consider themselves as staunch Christians, but their behavior is anything but that. The tragedy is that they know not what they do. It is because of them that decent people do not enter politics anymore.

K.P.S. KAMATH, Cape Girardeau