The (in)credible Mr. Santos: A test of integrity in public life
| New York
Whenever money, power, and politics are on the line, there are not just a few who will lie or steal to grab as much as they can.
That鈥檚 been true since the dawn of human civilization, which is in many ways defined by its particular social contracts and the layers of safeguards and systems of rewards and punishments that create incentives for citizens to abide by their terms.
The ongoing saga of newly elected Republican Rep. George Santos, however, has highlighted how much various social arenas rely on the value of personal integrity. Many of the ebbs and flows of human interactions are beyond the scope of the systems designed to encourage people to follow the rules. Clothed in notions of honor and social mores, including honesty and citizenship, that contribute to the common good, personal integrity often underlies a healthy, well-functioning society.
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onIn addition to personal integrity, there is also what might be called systematic integrity. In the case of George Santos, there are questions about why the traditional layers of political vetting didn鈥檛 identify an apparent fabulist.
Mr. Santos appears to have fabricated of the person he presented to voters, including his entire education and employment history, his property holdings, and especially his family history and ethnic background. He falsely claimed to be the grandson of Holocaust survivors, falsely claimed his mother died in the 9/11 attacks, falsely claimed to have founded a charity for animals, and falsely claimed that four employees of an unnamed company he said he owned were killed during the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. Perhaps most legally perilous: It is unclear what the source is for the more than $700,000 he loaned his campaign last fall. Mr. Santos is now being investigated by Nassau County, the Eastern District of New York, and the country of Brazil, which has involving a stolen checkbook. Despite all that, he was sworn in Saturday morning with the rest of the 118th Congress.
鈥淧art of the reason that George Santos slipped through is because the kinds of lies that he told were not just over-the-top lies; they were the kinds of lies that people don鈥檛 even think to check most of the time, because who tells lies like that?鈥� says Justin Buchler, professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. 鈥淲hen somebody just makes up the kinds of lies that a normal, sane person would not think to lie about, then few are going to check it.鈥�
On Monday, the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, with the Federal Election Commission, accusing the congressman of violating campaign finance law. Given his fabricated biography, the complaint said, the commission should investigate 鈥渨hat appear to be equally brazen lies about how his campaign raised and spent money.鈥�
For his part, Representative Santos his education and 鈥渆mbellishing鈥� his employment history, but says he is not a criminal.
A failure of the system?
But there is also what might be called systematic integrity. On the one hand, there can be questions about whether institutions and systems are actually designed to serve the values embedded within a social contract 鈥� like racial fairness and equal justice for all. But in the case of George Santos, there are also questions about why the traditional layers of political vetting didn鈥檛 identify such an apparent fabulist in time.
鈥淚 kind of feel sorry for him in some ways 鈥� not as a politician, but as a human being,鈥� says William Yousman, professor of communication and media studies at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. 鈥淭his is someone who clearly has some deep-seated problems.鈥�
鈥淏ut since he鈥檚 a member of Congress now,鈥� he continues, 鈥渙bviously, this is not something that we can abide.鈥� Professor Yousman also criticizes 鈥渢he astounding neglect鈥� of journalistic research or opposition research by his Democratic opponents.聽
鈥淭here鈥檚 always been people who are not truth tellers in politics and who embellish their reputations,鈥� says Patrick McGinnis, a venture capitalist who is part of the and , which work to strengthen American democracy. 鈥淏ut I think in this day and age, the institutions that we expect to do due diligence did not.鈥�
鈥淥ne of the roles of political parties is to vet their candidates,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hy is that? Because not only are they putting them forward for consideration, they鈥檙e encouraging people to send all this money to them so they can represent your voice,鈥� Mr. McGinnis says. 鈥淪o much about elections these days is simply focused on fundraising, so much energy goes into raising money and then running ads [rather] than finding good candidates.鈥�
鈥淔or me as a business person, it鈥檚 like, who is your fiduciary responsibility to?鈥� he asks. 鈥淭o me, it鈥檚 to the people who support them, and therefore it鈥檚 incumbent upon parties to do the work that they clearly haven鈥檛 done to vet their candidates in this case.鈥�
There is at least some evidence that Republicans were indeed concerned about some of Mr. Santos鈥� claims. Before the election, The Cook Political Report an unnamed senior Republican House aide wary of the candidate鈥檚 business background who said, 鈥淲e鈥檙e not touching him with a 10-foot pole.鈥�
In its on Mr. Santos in July, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee presented its findings, emphasizing Mr. Santos鈥� participation in Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, his own claims of election fraud during his loss in 2020, and details of his conservative positions on abortion, guns, and tax policy. The report included his work for a financial company exposed as a Ponzi scheme, and the animal rescue nonprofit he claimed to have launched, even though the IRS had no record it was ever registered.
鈥淧eople might find opposition research unseemly, but it is something that everybody has to do in today鈥檚 political environment,鈥� says Professor Yousman. 鈥淲ere the Democrats just distracted by other races? Was it hubris on their part?鈥� he says, since President Joe Biden won this New York district by over 8 percentage points in 2020. 鈥淲ith so much at stake, the control of the House, to me, that鈥檚 the most mysterious and the most inexplicable failures here.鈥澛�
The cost of news voids
Mr. Santos鈥� election has also brought attention once again to the state of the news media, especially the long and precipitous decline of local news organizations, which have traditionally served as the first line of independent political vetting. A hyperlocal newspaper did uncover a number of Mr. Santos鈥櫬�, but regional and national news failed to magnify the reporting.
In the history of liberal democracy, the guild of journalism has from the start understood itself as a kind of guardian over the integrity of politics and governance, one of its roles being to verify whether what candidates say is true. As journalists sometimes like to quip, 鈥淵our mother tells you she loves you? Check it out.鈥�
鈥淔rom a journalism standpoint, it鈥檚 clear to me that what many of us feared could happen, as news voids are created at an alarming rate, has in fact happened,鈥� says John Roche,聽professor of journalism at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 meant as an excuse for us, the news media, in allowing Santos鈥� record to go unchecked. But the fact is, the news media, especially local news, has been decimated by fiscal cuts, newspaper shutdowns, and ill-conceived corporate choices.鈥�
The news media, too, is just a part of a digital media landscape in which misinformation and angry, partisan vitriol is algorithmically fed into individual鈥檚 personal feeds.聽 聽
鈥淧olitics has become almost like one of those superhero movies 鈥� people see it as this battle of good versus evil,鈥� says Professor Yousman. 鈥淎nd of course, both sides see the other side as the evil ones, so it becomes justified then to do anything you can to defeat them because they represent such a threat.鈥�
How much is the truth worth?
Political scientists such as Professor Buchler, however, believe voters make more rational calculations when considering candidates with rough edges, and whose competence, honesty, and integrity might be lacking.
鈥淧olarization is part of this complicated moment, but I think it鈥檚 not so much about reflexive partisanship,鈥� he says. He sees a number of competing forces at work.
On the one hand, voters do consider a candidate鈥檚 honesty and competence as two essential traits. 鈥淏ut let鈥檚 say I鈥檓 a voter who leans slightly to the right, and I鈥檓 looking at a candidate very far to the left. The fact that this candidate is very far to the left means that the policy costs for me is really high, so I might look at a Republican who is dishonest.鈥�
鈥淚f the Democrat were more centrist, I would be more willing to make a concession and vote for a slightly less liberal candidate of the opposing party, and that cuts both ways,鈥� Professor Buchler says. 鈥淪o as the parties move further apart ... incentives for competence and honesty go down.鈥�
The scope and kind of Representative Santos鈥� fabrications, however, could challenge even the most partisan of nose-holding calculations, since nearly all of his campaign biography has proven false.聽
鈥淲ill all that鈥檚 happened with the ongoing Santos saga prove to be a red flag for what needs to be done about preserving integrity in politics, governance, and democracy?鈥� asks Professor Roche. 鈥淥r will it be a white flag signaling our collective surrender in the fight to demand a functional truth?鈥�
