Americans constantly tell pollsters and journalists that they dislike the slickness of today’s politicians. That, above all, was the criticism thrown at Bill Clinton. “Slick Willy” was a little too adept at gauging the political winds, triangulating and out-Republican-ing many of the GOP on issues like welfare reform and deficit reduction. When faced with this sort of ideological maneuvering, however justified by the politics of the moment, voters turn cynical. It’s no surprise that, when asked to rank professions in terms of honesty and ethical standards, Americans place politicians near the bottom of the heap.

The problem is the desire to find that rare politician with integrity and honesty bumps up against our other compelling desire as voters: to find that rare politician who shares all our views on policy, government spending, taxes, the American flag, violence in video games, the wearing of boxers vs. briefs, etc., etc.

When those desires conflict, we’re left in a quandary. Do we want politicians who offer moral leadership, or do we want politicians who pursue our particular interests? Do we want politicians who stick to their core convictions or politicians who cater to our every policy whim?

It’s not surprising that politicians tend to go with strategy #2:  appease the finicky voter. It’s easy to craft a political platform that perfectly matches the views of the poll-tested and focus-group-approved majority in your district. It’s easy to give the appearance of integrity with a few sound bites written by your handlers and rehearsed until you approach eloquence. It’s hard to stick with your personal beliefs — beliefs that will inevitably differ from the views of the majority unless you were born in a cookie-cutter and fed Gallup reports from birth. It’s hard to weather the criticism that comes from either the opposing side’s partisans or the ideological commissars of your own party.

Virginia gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine decided to stick with his personal belief that the death penalty is wrong. Of course, he’s a politician and he’s found a way to massage that politically unsightly knot on his record: He insists that he’d uphold the death penalty if elected and, when pressed by a journalist, conceded that some murderers “may deserve” the death penalty. But, in the kingdom of the integrity-less, the man with a half-ounce of character is king. A Democrat and a Roman Catholic, Kaine has long held that the death penalty — and abortion as well — violate the sanctity of human life. The fact that Kaine has not repudiated his anti-capital punishment views in spite of the intense political pressure to do so should be cause for praise.

Instead, Kaine is being assailed as a treacherous, effete liberal, a friend of Hitler and murderers everywhere. His opponent, Republican Jerry Kilgore, has paid for ads putting forth these charges and featuring the father of a murder victim. Never mind that Kaine has pledged, if elected governor, to enforce execution orders. Never mind that he has the courage to think unpopular thoughts in a state that — as Leonard Pitts Jr. points out in this excellent column — “executes people with a gusto.”

It is, ironically, Kaine’s very integrity that makes him untrustworthy. “I don’t trust Tim Kaine when it comes to the death penalty,” says Stanley Rosenbluth, the father of a murder victim, in one of Kilgore’s ads. Why? Because Kaine has a belief that Rosenbluth doesn’t like.

If Tim Kaine loses the Virginia gubernatorial race because of these attack ads, it will prove a sad truth about American voters: We really do get the politicians we deserve.

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen