Align with theirs. Today, we are asking washington listeners,ewers and how important is character when evaluating politicians . On the eastern or central time zone, call 202 7488000. If youre in the mountain pacific time zones, call 202 7488001. You can also reach us on social media on twitter at cspanwj. And on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Merry christmas to all of you. As we talk about character, a new poll from Morning Consult indicates that it is less and less important to voters. It says over all about 53 of registered voters surveyed say they prioritize policy positions, with 32 highlighting character in said instead. The poll was conducted on the days leading up to alabama special election. Accused ofoore was Sexual Misconduct, going up against democrat doug jones. I think most voters are disgusted by all saysays a recent dave former advisor. We are asking how important is character to you . If can call 202 7488000 you are in the eastern or central time zones. Mountain or pacific, call 202 7488001. One lawmaker who face Sexual Harassment allegations, minnesota senator al announced his resignation recently. Lets take a look. [video clip] serving in the United States senate has been the great honor of my life. I know, in my heart, that nothing i have done as a senator nothing has brought this institution, and i am confident that the Ethics Committee would agree. Nevertheless, today, i am announcing that, in the coming weeks, i will be resigning as member of the United States senate. That all people, am aware there is some irony in the fact that i am leaving while a man who has bragged, on tape, about his history of Sexual Assault sits in the oval office. And a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the senate with the full support of his party. But this decision is not about me. It is about the people of minnesota. It has become clear that i cannot both pursue the Ethics Committee process and, at the same time, remain an effective senator for them. Let me be clear i may be resigning my seat, but i am not giving up my voice. I will continue to stand up for the things i believe in, as a citizen and as an activist. But minnesotans deserve a senator who can focus with all theenergy on addressing challenges they face every day. Minnesota democrat senator al franken announcing his resignation at her several members of the Democratic Caucus called on him to step down amid Sexual Harassment allegations, although in a recent brookings showed that more americans do not have a problem with immorality, or at least americans say personal immorality is not a disqualifying factor for electing officials. It says compared to 2011, americans today are more likely to say elected officials can still perform their duties in an ethical data even if they have performed a moral immoral personal ax. This immoral behavior does not preclude officials from carrying out duties with honor and integrity. In 2011, the public was more divided over the connection between 44 of americans said that elected officials could still perform honorably, and any goal of not disagreed. Patricia is on the line. Think character is important . Caller i do. A man is judged by his character. Host so what do you think of the fact that fewer americans aree fewer americans willing to overlook character flaws in evaluating their politicians . Know what these people are thinking about, but character shows you what well do. You have to have some kind of knowledge of some kind of response ability in order to hold office. You do not want to just anybody who has money, like donald trump. Host did it make a difference in who you voted for in the last election . Caller what do you mean . Host did you think of a character, the character of the candidates, when you cast your vote . Caller sure i did. And i voted for hillary, because she was the most qualified. Host we have mary calling from alabama. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have a question. Yes, ethics and morality are important in politicians. We only have to look at mr. Him in the white house to see how well that turned out. But today is christmas. Why are you leading with this topic . Something there deranged at cspan right now . We should be talking about christmas and a b how people are celebrating and coming together. There are kids right now having their toys under their trees and their mothers and fathers listening to cspan. Did you ever think to that did you ever think of that . Host ok. And we at washington journal do talk about Public Policy issues 365 days of the year, but we appreciate your call. A little bit more from the Morning Consult poll. It found a difference between gop poll respondents. It says republicans are more forgiving than democrats when it comes to the personal issues for the candidate running for Public Office. It shows gop voters care more about policy positions. Gop voters in the National Survey say they prioritize a candidates stance on policy matters, while 28 said character is more important. Of democratsty favored policy positions. We are asking you if you think that character is an important is important when evaluating politicians. Eastern and central time zones, 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific, 202 7488001. Iona is calling from north charleston, South Carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host and what do you think . Do you think character is important to consider when evaluating politicians . Caller character is very evaluating an political person. It gives us an insight into that person, how far they will push the envelope, the things they will and will not stand for in the office. Person andlook at a think that, ok, this person has been unethical, this person has a completely flawed character that continues to follow them you do not hold a persons past against them, however, you have to look at that past in its who le context and view the person as to where you will stand. Host where do you draw the line . You say you have to consider the whole context. Are there certain amounts of poor behavior that is a line drawer for you . Caller there is. It is just like and i know it will is going to extreme, but a convict. ,f this person made a mistake made one poor misjudgment, and visit decided and they decided to strain their lives out, moving on, contributed, have been amoral, upstanding person from this point on, yes, you forgive that. But a person who will constantly, because they have the upper hand and they have the wherewithal to do these things and manipulate the system and manipulate everything around them, continuously does that and allows it to follow them no. That person does not have any reason to be in office, as far as i am concerned. Because that person will stop short at nothing to push forth their own agendas and overlook mine, the people. Host in the federalist, Denise Mcallister has an opinion piece on whether character matters. She writes a mans character is certainly a factor in the quality of his governance, but when the sins are personal and not public in nature, his governance can be directed by other virtues that still shine ghtly this fight other faults. A moral man can certainly be trusted to make moral decisions, although not always, but it does not follow that a sinner can never make a moral decision or be an effective leader. Also in the federalist, and opposing view it says if a politicians personal life does not matter for voting, why even voice support for the size at all . I am not saying only choirboys with a squeaky clean record should be elected, but the inconsistency of doing values for leaders and what the rest of us are supposed to live by will grow more and more stark. Without enforcing moral standards, the right and the left will become two sides of the same grimy coin. Who cares whether it comes up heads or tails. We all pay the price in the long run. We are getting a call from georgia. What do you think . Caller character matters, but most voters do not have a way of detecting it. It is a false indicator. Look at resident george bush. By any accounts, he was a wonderful man, great family man, no known dalliances, but he invades iraq and causes the death of hundreds of thousands. The cost of over 6 trillion. Several thousand u. S. Servicemen. For no solid reasons at all. Us id that character by buy us . Look at hillary clinton. Always handled herself with the utmost dignity, but she was apparently as corrupt as any third world politician. You look at someone like assador ron dormer incredible individual in public and his personal character, yet he is the face of apartheid. Host how do you measure it, joe . When you evaluate lawmakers or political candidates when you go to the polls, how do you measure character . Caller i think the only way i have and i think trump has come the closest, but certainly he is a disappointment, is are they talking about doing things truly for American People, American Workers . Or are they trying their very best to avoid war . Are they doing everything they possibly can to avoid war . That is singly the most important thing. Again, trump talked about those things, but he seems to be doing the opposite. I do not think there is any accurate way of measuring that. Host ok. Jay is calling in from north charleston, South Carolina. Caller how are you doing . Host i am good. Merry christmas. What do you think about character . Should that be important in evaluating public leaders . Caller absolutely. It should be paramount. , weme being an idealist could be totally transparent. This country would not even have come into inception if it directly contradicted that. Tomas jefferson had a clause free the slaves originally. They took it out. Wouldiginal 13 colonies not even have been sanctioned if people did not look like you if people that look like you and were not considered 3 5 of a person. Ladies, theyre talking about you too. You were considered property. Even in the original wedding vows, it was to love, honor, and obey your man. It definitely based on the laws and the rules of this land, i mean i want to bring an example. Back, whotive tim happens to be a republican, talked about bipartisan corruption in d. C. , in the whole political system. This is just an extension of what i formerly stated about idealistically, yes, it should be. But fundamentally because i consider myself a fundamentalist as well what we see in this country is totally false. Host lets take a look at what White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders said in response to a question about Sexual Harassment allegations against the president. [video clip] thank you. 18 to ask you about the woman who came forward today against the president , saying, first of all, on a television show, and then at a press conference, and they said that he should resign and also there should be a congressional investigation. I know you said this has already been litigated in the last election, but i wanted to get your specific reaction to the idea there should be an investigation. The president has addressed these accusations directly and denied all of these guys of these all allegations. It took place long before he was elected to be president. The people of this country, in a decisive election, supported the president. We feel like these allegations have been answered. Is callings jim from ohio. Do you think character is important in evaluating politicians, and, if so, how much . Caller yes, of course i do. I like the way you phrased it this time around. The character question goes to the electorate. The percentages that you read off at the top of your program indicated that roughly twice as thatpeople thought agreement with their policy positions was more important than what kind of person was going into the office. That is something that is known as confirmation bias. If we are electing our peoples to Public Office is based on the fact that they agree with what we think when we are, by the nature of things, not as informed on all of the different issues that they are going to be addressing, the people that hold Public Office, people should be and i guess, in a perfect world, or at least a better world, people would be hoping that the person that goes in has enough character to have the integrity to inform themselves and to present their policy positions truthfully. And to change their opinion in the light of new information or new fax facts. So what you saw in those initial percentages that you read was indicative of why we have the person sitting in the oval office that we do and why some people, who are excellent people , in terms of their knowledge gathering and decisionmaking, are probably being turned away from office or, even, drummed out of office because of what is perceived to be a small character defect. So yes, i angle that my percentage would be completely reversed you i would say it is about a 95 character and 5 their present policy positions. The type of activity matter or the type of character flaw matter . Would it make a difference if someone, in the past, cheated on their taxes as opposed to, perhaps, sexually harassing someone . [laughter] caller of course. That is why the punishment is different for rolling through a stop sign and for committing murder. When you just use a broad brush like character, of course it is the more important thing that a particular policy position. But within that, within that are of possiblesbord character flaws. The better points of our character there are things like integrity and truthfulness that rise above a momentary lapse in judgment, shall we say, which, in the last couple of months, we have seen some people who have, particularly the men who have been brought up on various kinds of charges or allegations we see them all lumped into one barrel of out with the cad. Whereas some of the violations were unlawful violations, egregious ones, crimes, and others were just a lapse in judgment of, perhaps, having a hand on someones back. What ist points to initially stated in the call to peoples thought processes, i do not think, in our country, are very well formed anymore. I do not think people think deeply. I am glad you have this question and are not talking about what presence people are getting for christmas, because the nature of how people are thinking, in this country, is probably the paramount question that could be addressed on cspan. Sean is calling in from hawaii. A very early good morning to you. My problem with this issue is when the bipartisan ship seems to become a state. Heavily democratic representative state. The things that happen and our state the persons characters covered up by them being democrats. Catch them locally here, corruption of some sort, is covered up by the democratic already, because they do not have any bipartisanship here. From who we end up electing, because we are a heavily democratic favored state , the character issue is not we voteught up, because party so hardcore. Host what about choosing between different Democratic Candidates in primary races . Do you think about character when it comes to those races . Caller that is the problem as well. Because they are in the same party. The way they got there they are on the ticket at all is because there are associated with each other. And some waystate that we run it we are an island state. It is very small. Everybody knows everybody. It is not you are not qualified by what you know. It is who you know. That is why we have a single party state that is so controlled in that kind of context. If there is character flaws in that set up, they go unheeded until they are called in a corrupt state. Do nothing as an electorate. It is really sad. [indiscernible] host lets look at what democratic senator elect doug jones said in his victory speech. [video clip] at the end of the day, this entire race has been about dignity and respect. [cheers] [applause] this campaign has been about the rule of law. [cheers] [applause] abouts campaign has been common courtesy and decency and making sure everyone, in be state, regardless of which zip code you live in, is going to get a fair shake in life. We are talking about whether character how important character is when evaluating politicians. Again, if you are in the eastern or central time zones, you can call 202 7488000. The mountain or pacific time zones, 202 7488001. Lets take a look now at a tweet from the president on this christmas day, our leading up to this christmas day. He said people are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again. I am proud to have led the charge against the assault on our cherished and beautiful phrase. May christmas. The tweet from the president this morning. Also, take a look at the New York Times today. Renkle,ce by margaret it talks about the tension between christian voters and candidates who do not always espouse moral values. She writes that the special Senate Election in alabama has exposed how closely conservative christianity is now in lockstep with the Republican Party. She goes on to say the day of the election, the editor and chief ofthe editor in christianity today identify the biggest loser in alabama. The Christian Faith itself. It comes to when matters of life or death or personal commitment to the human heart, no one will believe a word we say. Perhaps for a generation. Christianity presents a conundrum for even jealous lists evangelic just evange licists. We have this call from florida. Caller good morning. I will take this from a different perspective. I am a catholic. I am a christian. I have a brother who is evangelical. He is very big in his church. He is a missionary. He tells me, unless i am born again, i am not a real christian. Well, trump is playing the god card just the way george w. Bush did. You have a lot of christians out there that say god picked george bush, god picked donald, that god works in strange and wonderful ways no. I believe god works in wondrous ways. Strange . No. Things happened under the george bush administration. So long as these religious zealots get what they want regarding policy or money or whatever, even sending our kids off to war, they do not give a damn. They are not real christians. Th