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WASHINGTON — In a veiled rebuke of President Trump, former Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson warned on Wednesday that American democracy was threatened by a growing “crisis of ethics and integrity.”
“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom,” he said in a commencement address at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va.
Even small falsehoods and exaggerations are problematic, Mr. Tillerson said. He did not mention Mr. Trump by name, although the president isprone to both.
“When we as people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth even on what may seem the most trivial matters, we go wobbly on America,” he said.
...
In his address, he cut to the heart of the most significant criticisms of the president, that Mr. Trump exaggerates and constructs his own truths and that he has undermined ethical standards in Washington.
“If we do not as Americans confront the crisis of ethics and integrity in our society and among our leaders in both the public and private sector — and regrettably at times even the nonprofit sector — then American democracy as we know it is entering its twilight years,” Mr. Tillerson warned.
...
“One of America’s great advantages is we have many allies,” he said. “Our adversaries — China, Russia, Iran and the terrorist organizations — have few.”
...
“We must never take these long-held allies for granted,” he said. “We must motivate and strengthen them — not just in our areas of complete agreement, but particularly in bridging our differences both in trading relations and in national security matters.”
Mr. Tillerson made a full-throated appeal for the benefits of free trade, warning of the “anxiety and fear about growth in foreign markets and about the global movement of jobs.”
He said that “every nation has a right to aspire to a better quality of life, and that free trade and economic growth are the means by which opportunity is created for all people.” It was a notable defense of free trade and developing nations from a veteran of an administration that has threatened to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement and impose billions of dollars in tariffs on rivals and allies alike, and uses “America First” as its guiding principle.
...
Mr. Tillerson also said citizens must demand that America’s future be “fact-based, not based on wishful thinking, not hoped-for outcomes made in shallow promises, but with a cleareyed view of the facts as they are and guided by the truth that will set us free to seek solutions to our most daunting challenges.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/politics/tillerson-truth-lies-american-democracy-trump.html
“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom,” he said in a commencement address at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va.
Even small falsehoods and exaggerations are problematic, Mr. Tillerson said. He did not mention Mr. Trump by name, although the president isprone to both.
“When we as people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth even on what may seem the most trivial matters, we go wobbly on America,” he said.
...
In his address, he cut to the heart of the most significant criticisms of the president, that Mr. Trump exaggerates and constructs his own truths and that he has undermined ethical standards in Washington.
“If we do not as Americans confront the crisis of ethics and integrity in our society and among our leaders in both the public and private sector — and regrettably at times even the nonprofit sector — then American democracy as we know it is entering its twilight years,” Mr. Tillerson warned.
...
“One of America’s great advantages is we have many allies,” he said. “Our adversaries — China, Russia, Iran and the terrorist organizations — have few.”
...
“We must never take these long-held allies for granted,” he said. “We must motivate and strengthen them — not just in our areas of complete agreement, but particularly in bridging our differences both in trading relations and in national security matters.”
Mr. Tillerson made a full-throated appeal for the benefits of free trade, warning of the “anxiety and fear about growth in foreign markets and about the global movement of jobs.”
He said that “every nation has a right to aspire to a better quality of life, and that free trade and economic growth are the means by which opportunity is created for all people.” It was a notable defense of free trade and developing nations from a veteran of an administration that has threatened to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement and impose billions of dollars in tariffs on rivals and allies alike, and uses “America First” as its guiding principle.
...
Mr. Tillerson also said citizens must demand that America’s future be “fact-based, not based on wishful thinking, not hoped-for outcomes made in shallow promises, but with a cleareyed view of the facts as they are and guided by the truth that will set us free to seek solutions to our most daunting challenges.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/politics/tillerson-truth-lies-american-democracy-trump.html
