Game of Thrones, Clinton, and Sanders

I am a Clinton supporter, and keep hearing from Sanders fans about how he is honest and she is a liar. Then I think of some of my favorite characters in Game of Thrones, which I am currently rewatching from the beginning.

Ned Stark — Honest, loyal, up-standing. He gets himself killed and helps start a civil war where hundreds of thousands will die. His ‘good’ qualities turned out to be very expensive for a lot of people.

Daenerys Targarayn — Amazing person who takes some big risks to do what she thinks is right. But she overrides long-standing beliefs of her husband’s tribe, which leads to his and their childs death. She then tries to free slaves in cities she conquers, with mixed results. Not so good on listening to the advice of others, or trying to work with them, and a lot of people suffer for that.

Tyrion Lannister — Not honest, not upstanding, but here he is after five years doing good things ( like saving King’s Landing, saving Sansa Stark, going to Daenerys Targarayn ). He makes no pretense about telling lies when he has to.

Varys the Spider — The byword for dishonest and sneaky, but beneath all that he is saving a lot of innocent peoples lives through his manipulations.

Hillary Clinton —Trying to work with a lot of people to build a coalition to lead the county in a positive direction. Tells the truth to a degree, but will lie or disemble when required. Over that past 25 years has a long list of enemies and allies.

Bernie Sanders — I love the message, and I expect it is a true and honest message, but where’s the meat. And how in goodness does he ever think he will make good on all those promises ( or could that be the hidden lie ). And all this talk of revolution — sorry, but real revolutions are nasty bloody things that spawn counter-revolution and civil war. No track record of working with others, and lots of wild talk that could lead to very bad outcomes.

For me, I expect a good leader to tell lies when needed, if done for ‘the sake of the realm’.