Back when Jill Long Thompson represented Indiana in Congress in the 1990s, she recalls meeting other members of the House, including a powerful committee chairman, at an upscale restaurant on the dime of a lobbyist.
The situation had presented a dilemma for Long Thompson. She wanted to make a connection with the chairman, but she opposed taking freebies from lobbyists. She decided to order a Diet Coke while others ate their meals. She paid back the lobbyist the next day.
Long Thompson, who has taught ethics at Indiana University, has grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of ethics in some quarters of government today. She has written a book, "The Character of American Democracy," in which she uses this "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" anecdote and others from her time in Congress to argue that the United States could lose its democracy if citizens continue to accept blatant unethical behavior from leaders.
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Long Thompson, 68, said she is troubled with the self-interest of the current administration.
"I started the book a couple of years ago when I was observing that the current administration, President Trump's administration, was not conducting business in an ethical way and in doing so was undermining our democracy," she said. "The lack of transparency, for example, and having creating opportunities for his children to meet with foreign leaders and then have access to business in those foreign countries. Those kinds of things are not democratic."
Thompson's book is 124 pages long, plus an index of places, concepts and names. Indiana University Press is publishing it Sept. 15.
In a gesture worthy of the ideals in her book, all of the proceeds will go toward Indiana University. She taught ethics at IU the past five years but transitioned to a visiting scholar after the spring semester to have more time to promote her book.
Thompson, who lives in Marshall County in north central Indiana, also has an MBA and doctorate in business from the university.
In the book, she argues that knowingly voting for and supporting an unethical leader will undermine democracy. The ends, she said, does not justify the means. She uses examples of past presidents acting ethically against their own best interests.
George H.W. Bush, she notes, raised taxes because he thought it was the right thing to do regardless of personal consequences. He knew the decision could cost him the reelection, she argues. He and other presidents, she notes, put their assets in a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest.
Trump has a revocable trust, which allows him to withdraw money from his business empire whenever he wants. Two of his sons, who are involved with his presidency, run the business.
Long Thompson's personal stories provide insight into the workings of Congress. A Democrat in the state's more moderate tradition, she won three elections beginning in 1989 in Indiana's red-leaning Fourth Congressional District, which was at that time in the northwest corner of the state.
At the end of that dinner back in the early 1990s, Long Thompson said a fellow House member's wife was puzzled that Long Thompson felt it wrong to accept a free meal from lobbyists. Long Thompson said her colleague's wife informed her that they could never afford to eat out at such fine restaurants on their own.
Paying back that Diet Coke for fear of being ethically compromised may sound excessive. But Long Thompson cites, in the book, a Yale study that showed people are influenced by as much as free peanuts and soda, much less expensive nights out on the town.
It's illegal for Congress members to accept free meals from lobbyists now. Long Thompson said the chairman, whom she declined to name because he is dead, was later convicted on corruption charges.
"I grew up in the late '60s and early '70s, and I lived through a time when we lied about the Vietnam War and Watergate," she said, "but I have never seen anything as egregious as I see now.
"Our democracy is at risk when we have leaders who basically undermine the democratic process so they can get what they want individually rather than what is good for the country."
Call IndyStar reporter Chris Sikich at 317-444-6036. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisSikich.
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