A Voter's Guide to Character and Integrity: Because It Matters for All of US
Do we even think that is possible any longer, or have we all given up hope for a common good approach and are already fortifying our respective political corners for the knock down, drag out fight of our lives in 2024 without a glance backward to what used to work. Because I'd like to think we could find a few points of agreement for the common good.
Or that we could even agree on the need for a common good -- any common good -- for all of our sakes.
Can we at least see eye to eye that resolving disagreements over policy through the use of force is wrong? Shouldn't we have learned that lesson in the run up to the Civil War in the 1850s and 1860s?
Or that we ought at least to work on returning to sane discussion instead of off the charts yelling and threats? It's worth mentioning that back in the day, there used to be a rotating poker game between the leadership in the House, the Senate and the White House, where there was discussion on issues and points of agreement in between hands. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her family used to go on vacation with Antonin Scalia and his. Could you think of two jurists more diametrically opposed in terms of ideology? But they were still able to maintain not just civil discourse but a long-standing friendship that was based on mutual respect and admiration for deeply held positions. They could argue facts and law and still remain friends and respect each other enough to change their mind occasionally when the other person was persuasive about the rightness of their position. Let's learn from that.
Do we still value solving problems and real, in-depth conversation on any political level, or have we decided mortal combat and chaos are the current daily muses instead? Because, at the end of the day, good government requires discussion and compromise. All out rhetorical warfare (let alone physically and violently attacking the US Capitol, which was disgusting and appalling, along with being criminal) accomplishes nothing but making things even worse than they already were.
Wouldn't we all like better government? For all our sakes, but especially for our children and all the generations that follow?
Forgive me for a moment if I wax politically philosophic, but let's take a moment to go to school on what my favorite professor at Smith College, Leo Weinstein, would call the essentials of an examined national life that is well worth living and doing, because your job as a citizen in this nation of ours is an active and analytical job.
Voters ought to be thoughtful. They ought to care about fully and completely educating themselves on the issues of the day - from all sides, testing and retesting their assumptions, and not just swallowing wholesale what others on the news or on the internet are telling them to think.
My papa, a Methodist minister for 50+ years, used to tell me all the time that "God gave you that brain so you could think for yourself, and choose wisely what you do and say. Never let anyone else do the thinking for you, because it is going to get you in trouble every time if you do. Think for yourself, and take that responsibility seriously." I took that to heart, and so should everyone else. A person who allows someone else to do the thinking for them gets led too easily by the nose down a path that is not good for them.
Political figures are not gods to be worshipped, nor are they even golden calves, but fake idols with shiny exteriors who way too often have their own, personal interests as their guiding star, and not yours as a member of the public. They are mostly just fully fallible humans born with the same original sin as the rest of us, maybe with a little more personal greed sprinkled in for our comfort zone.
Sometimes more, if we are being honest.
Unless you can find someone who takes their calling seriously to truly be a public servant, as in their mission is to serve the public's interest and not just that of their donors and cronies, they are not to be trusted to do your thinking. Our job as the voting public is to hold these people accountable to "we, the people," if we ever want to get to that "more perfect union" promised land.
A citizen who questions authority, who holds elected people to account to serve all of the people, to think about the needs of the governed and not how to hold onto their seat of power with every clawing, gasping breath - that is the leadership we want.
But we all have to work for it as voters. All of us, every election cycle.
If we want people in government who have integrity, who have moral courage, who stand up for the rule of law and act with an eye toward good government and well-written laws, people who are well informed and willing to do the hard work it takes to be a good public servant? Then we have to learn to demand better from the folks we have elected, or to elect better people in the first place. We have to cast our ballots for decent, honest people where we can find them.
If we want more of those in office, we need to find better candidates and demand that they live up to our expectations on integrity and actually doing the work.
The truth is that American government is only as good as the people we elect to serve us. Those elected people only continue to serve us if we hold them accountable every single day they are in office.
If you, like I certainly am, are sick and tired of a dysfunctional, mean and constantly squabbling government that is stalled and failing to govern well on far too many occasions, then read on, dear voter.
Because as a retired civics and APGOV teacher, I am not ready to surrender my beloved nation to the irritating, dysfunctional and mean political fray. No American voter should be, for it is our responsibility, as Benjamin Franklin so succinctly put it to a curious citizen outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia when the US Constitution was drafted, "we have a republic, if we can keep it."
All the way back to our nation's founding, the question was not if we could have a government, but how we could best ensure the continuation of a good government, for the people and by the people. To do that, requires a commitment to the principles so eloquently argued by Rousseau on the notion of a "social contract." This is an agreement we all come to with each other on how our government should benefit the most Americans for the good of our American republic.
Something that truly matters and gets to the heart of things is why such divisive rhetoric and inflammatory political content is poisoning the civic well? Making actual governance impossible, even for those few public servants who want to do their jobs well and with an eye to the public good, means that people begin to damn government for their ills, instead of looking squarely at the people who are profiting from the industry that thrives on fundraising against government or profits from deregulation. I include SCOTUS and their anti-government attitude of late in this mix -- I'm looking at you Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch.
It should not have taken the recent decision SCOTUS decision undermining to open eyes on that.
Attacking taxes while simultaneously griping about the size of the deficit? Any accountant can tell you that in order to pay down debt you have to have enough revenue along with addressing spending? Also, can we talk about holding to account the fact that the party complaining the loudest also has contributed the most to that deficit when they hold the White House -- historically true and factual folks.
All of this is designed toward a goal: discredit government by making it utterly dysfunctional, fundraise off the remnants and failure, and build a system that rewards your biggest donors -- oligarchs, fraudsters, ideologues and corporate raiders.
Look at the top donors to any political candidate, and ask yourself if those corporate and wealthy donors represent your day to day interests? Do they care about your grocery costs, or are they responsible for driving them up? Do they care about governmental regulations that protect clean water, clean air, safe workplaces, and fair pay -- or are they interested in cutting regulations to increase their profits and not caring about the results of that to the environment or the workplace?
In short, are they for the little guy and making things more fair, or for increasing profit and plunder for themselves and the hell with everyone else?
That should matter. Shouldn't it?
Shouldn't our governmental policies reflect public safety and public good, in accordance with our social contract with each other? We give up a little to the government in order to have laws, rules and regulations for the benefits of things like national security, police protection, and the benefits we get from good government. When we undermine that, we undermine each other and our ability to function in a civil society together for the greater good of us all, not just the few at the top of the heap.
Everything old is new again, which is why the study of history and government is essential in our civic education. Look up the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era: innovation and strong business is essential to a healthy economy, but workers' rights and family policies build a better nation and a stronger economy overall, and safety policies that protect workers, stop child labor, allow for healthier workplaces and livable hours and wages help the rising tide to raise a lot more boats in a thriving economy.
These are old questions, from before the founding of this nation, batted back and forth among philosophers like Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Montesquieu, but the questions come down to this: how can we design a government that helps individuals in this country live their lives better together? Why does the rule of law apply to everyone, and how does that benefit all of us?
If none of this sounds familiar, you just got a great reading list for a starter set on good governance.
Answers every voter has to answer for themselves, but I choose a democratic republic and a government that helps with people in it who represent me and not just themselves. I plan to vote that way in November, one office at a time. And to keep fighting for it every year going forward, because it's the most American thing I can do in troubling times. What say you, America?
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