Yes, but Rumi

 

Bad guys unquestionably deserve bad press. But like the rest of us, they also deserve fairness -- particularly at a time when a cynical public's in the mood to swallow any negative innuendo they hear. Ethics aren't easy, but they're always right.

 In fact, you could say they're what separates us from them.

 Yes, politicians get a harder time from the public and press that the average citizen.

They also get an easier time from the Justice system.  How many politicians have been pulled over for DUI, only to be let off with a slap on the wrist?  The average citizen can't even get out of a speeding ticket - there's clearly a bias at play.

Does this make politicians bad people?  To many, it does.  They are separate from the rest of us; thugs, immoral, scandalous.  A different note on the same chord as we view the really bad guys, those who equally commit acts that are vastly removed from what we see ourselves as capable of.

 

Yet invariably, there's someone out there who views us as The Other, too.  We are either all alien, or we're all the same.

 

In my experience, "fair" isn't something that is given to us; it's something we give to others.  We aren't willing to share with people we feel are lesser-thans, nor empower those we feel superior to.  But then they aren't particularly inspired to be prosocial, either.

 

Justice does not accept walls, glass or otherwise; that's how it binds us together.