While the political left and right continue to indulge the delusion that the other end of the political spectrum is primarily responsible for causing our collective problems, some are beginning to wake up to the fact that nasty politics has helped to create a culture that is deeply lacking in integrity.

Christopher G. Adamo is a conservative columnist who appears to have a strong passion about restoring integrity in government, even though he has a decidedly right-leaning partisan bias and thus tends to have his own integrity deficits in that he indulges in spin like most of today's political pundits.

Here is an excerpt from a post of his on February 4, 2008:

American politics got significantly nastier and more unscrupulous at the brazen and unrestrained hands of the Clintons than anything Richard Nixon could ever have hoped for in his most sinister dreams. And the problem does not show signs of abating any time soon. For although America abhors it, those inside the Beltway seem to believe that their mastery of such tactics is the key to political dominance.

Yet by such events, America's prospects for the future grow bleak. If anything, this manner of politicking continues to sink the entire governing process deeper and deeper into a murky abyss of corruption, venom, and deceit.

Only when Americans truly decide that such behavior is unacceptable, and show it by their votes, will Washington be forced to take note and change its ways. The dismal results from Florida, along with the fact that the Clintons are still standing after their antics in South Carolina, suggests that America has still further to descend before it hits bottom. 

While pundits from the left and the right seem, like Adamo, to delight in taking potshots at those whose ideologies differ from the one they themselves are pushing, I think the core of Adamo's message is right on the money. I agree with him that the "manner of politicking" that he talks about indeed "continues to sink the entire governing process deeper and deeper into a murky abyss of corruption, venom, and deceit,"Only when Americans truly decide that such behavior is unacceptable, and show it by their votes, will Washington be forced to take note and change its ways."

I believe that the surest and quickest way this change can occur is through citizens coming to understand what integrity is really about. This is what I provide in my new book, The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World.

[Note: Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer and staff writer for the New Media Alliance. He lives in southeastern Wyoming. He has been active in local and state politics for many years. His contact information and archives can be found at www.chrisadamo.com.]