Why should I trust you?

I once heard about this as a job interview question. You know, such as:

• “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
• “What your biggest weaknesses?”
• “Why should I trust you?”

Nobody has ever asked me that in a job interview, as far as I can recall. But wow. Why should I trust you? That’s a doozy.

But I think it is a good question for this campaign, which means, a good question for me. I need you to trust me.

I’ve thought about it. My answer has two parts.

First: you should trust me because your friends trust me. That is, please talk about me with them. Don’t learn about this campaign all alone and decide all alone if you love it/hate it/don’t care. Read these posts, pass them along and ask “hey, what’s your read on this dude?” Or if you know me, talk about me.

This is a risk. I have not led a perfect life. I have made some poor choices. I have former friends and former lovers and former coworkers, and some may have a negative view of me. I bet you have all of this and these people too.

But that’s okay. This campaign is about the truth, which means you should listen to all sides and make your own decisions.

Second, you should trust me because I care about the truth. I think most of us have learned the hard way that we’d rather hear the truth up front. I think I we all know we’re better off telling the truth right away.

Telling the truth is hard, and so is being willing to hear it. And the truth is often not what we want it to be. But we need it.

The truth about our country, our government, our society is that it’s complicated. The more someone insists they are right without a full explanation, the more likely it is that we aren’t hearing some crucial details.

That’s where we are.

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As I was writing this post, I came across this pop-businessy article about how to know if someone is trustworthy.