How America Lost its Values, Morals, and Principles Over the Last 78 Years

I was born on July 7, 1946; an original baby boomer. My mother gave birth to me in Lewiston, Idaho. Just before my sixth birthday, my mother, father, little brother, John, my maternal grandparents, and my mother’s youngest brother moved to Los Angeles, because that’s where the jobs were.

Several years later, my mother and father divorced. My mother rented a small apartment very near my grandparent’s home in West Los Angeles. My mother was a single parent, and therefore a working mom. My grandparents and my uncle were role models and helped raise my brother and me.

We were a Catholic family. Besides going to church every Sunday, we went to “novena” on Wednesdays, and every celebration associated with Christmas and Easter. I went to ‘confession’ every week.

From my grandfather I learned the most important things in my life: kindness, acceptance, respect for everyone in my life, a high moral standard, and a work ethic like no other.

At the age of ten, I began an interest in politics. I didn’t understand everything, but I was fascinated as I watched Dwight Eisenhower’s second convention in 1956. From that day forward my interest grew.

After I graduated high school in June of 1964, I decided to enlist in the U.S.A.F. I had the grades, but not the money to attend a university, and I believed that I would receive training in the Air Force which would help me find a future in the real world. I was very wrong, but that’s another story. While I was in the U.S.A.F., the situation in Vietnam began to escalate, Men my age and younger were drafted and sent to Southeast Asia for a reason no one can explain to me today. This was the first time I questioned my government’s actions, and if what they decided in Washington was good for all of our country’s people.

Although our leaders continued to claim that they were God-fearing men and women who placed our people first, I learned later that “war is good business,” and politicians and the super-rich who invested in the military industrial complex increased their personal wealth. To this day, this is the only reason our youngest and finest were sent halfway around the world, only to come home in body bags, or without limbs.

Although those who worked in Washington defended the illegal and immoral war, younger Americans marched in our city’s streets and on the campuses of our colleges and universities. Our nation was deeply divided between generations.

I began to read more about what was happening in Washington. I discovered massive corruption and deceit among our elected officials. My trust in the very men and women I voted for disappeared.

I was medically discharged from the Air Force in 1965. The first year I could vote in a general election was in 1968.

Like most men and women my age, we had idolized John F. Kennedy. It was a devastating loss for all of us when he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. We were seniors in high school.

It would surprise no one that although I began my voting life as an independent, I strongly supported JFK’s brother, Bobby in 1968. However, when he was murdered in Los Angeles in the summer of. 1968, I was sad and very disappointed. Hubert Humphrey was not acceptable, and having watched the debates in 1960, I was doubtful about Richard Nixon.

I will not reveal my choice, but it is important to know that in my first opportunity to vote for the man who would lead our nation for the next four years, I made the decision based on their records, and positions on the issues facing our nation in the late 1960’s.

When Nixon was forced to resign in 1974, I began to lose faith in every elected official in Washington. His replacement, Gerald Ford, was incompetent, and failed his responsibilities when he pardoned a president who was undoubtedly a “crook.” I began to believe what I now know: there is no law in America. The rich and powerful can do anything they desire and will never be fairly punished for their crimes.

However, I believed that America remained a nation demanding exceptional moral character from its president, and other leaders who had amassed power in Washington. It was widely accepted that any man seeking the presidency must be married and never divorced. He must have a strong marital relationship. No man who was suspected of any moral scandal related to his home life or was suspected of crimes involving financial or political gain could ever receive the votes of most of our nation’s people.

In 1988, I was convinced about my beliefs when the favorite Democratic candidate, Gary Hart, was exposed. He was involved in an extramarital affair with a young woman named Donna Rice. He was eventually forced to withdraw his candidacy.

In 1992, I was a supporter of William Jefferson Clinton. However, as allegations arose that he had at least one affair as the Governor of Arkansas, I had my doubts. As President, it was revealed that he had sexual relations with a woman by the name of Monica Lewinski in the White House. I and millions of others questioned our decision in 1996 when Clinton sought reelection. Had our leaders lost their sense of morality, and what was right and wrong?

Since that time, there have been many scandals in Washington. Sexual impropriety, heterosexual and homosexual, stealing money from campaign donations, illegally obtaining information about stock market futures, buying or selling stocks to increase their personal finances and other crimes have become commonplace.

By 2016, America’s voters abandoned their requirement that presidents must have a strong moral compass, and possess principles which display credibility and confidence among our nation’s people.

Not only had Donald Trump been married three times, it was common knowledge that he violated his marriage vows on all three occasions. His closest friend for 10 years was a man known for his love of sexual liaisons with underage women, Jeffrey Epstein. He admitted on camera that he is a sexual predator, and was convicted of lying about his relationship with an adult film star. He was a lifetime criminal, and a failure as a businessman. His “empire” was bailed out first by Russian oligarchs, and later by the Saudi Royal Family. Although Trump claimed that “he had never met the man” in 2016, evidence proved that he had undoubtedly met Vladimir Putin in Moscow in 1987 and again in 2013. In 2018 it was confirmed that he colluded with Putin in 2016 to win the Electoral College. Until his controversial victory on November 5, 2024, he was facing charges of treason and violating the Espionage Act: both crimes punishable by life imprisonment or death. He has rightfully been labeled as “Putin’s Puppet” since 2016.

America is no longer a country where honesty, integrity, morals, or principles are of importance.

It is a fact the “anyone can become the American President.'

Op-ed by James Turnage