Pointillist

In Praise of Political Gentlemen… and Ladies

pointillist — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:29:02 +0000

Heat and hostility in politics is as old as politics itself. Just open the Old Testament and you’ll see King Saul plotting to murder David, yet an act of mercy such as David shows Saul in the end is hardly a common plot point in today’s political dramas.

Merrill Jensen’s book, “The Founding of a Nation” tells a story from December 1763 about Massachusetts merchants attempting to prevent the renewal of the Molasses Act, saying, “Party warfare rather than colonial policy governed what followed.”

History is full of political figures engaging in petty squabbling like that seen in Congress’ failed bailout proceedings this past week, all those egos fiddling while Rome burns. Yet the fact that something is common or rooted in history is no justification for continuing wrongheaded behavior. Nasty and dishonest politics damages us citizens, and it belies the fact that we, as individuals, as parties, as a nation, can and should do far better.

Mourning the extinction of civil discourse

I recently discovered an article called “How to Debate Politics Civilly,” which said, “These days rousing, yet respectful political debate is practically non-existent. The new media, far from presenting balanced, in-depth coverage of the important, meaty issues of the day, spend their time constantly regurgitating manufactured scandals and fanning the flames of personality contests. Debates between men in person, and especially on the internet, quickly devolve into indignant shouting matches, where personal insults are substituted for rational arguments.”

Frankly, the bipartisan politics of the last twenty years is just not worthy of our once and future “shining city on a hill.” Even more importantly, our country has and should again be an example of the best aspects of western civilization. Specifically, we should demand that our politicians and their advisors engage in civil discourse, rewarding those who do with our votes, and writing passionate, pointed, and, yes, still polite letters to those who persist in gutter politics.

We can also show integrity by being civilized in our own political discussions, avoiding the distortions and willful ignorance that only increase the great partisan divide.

Raising the bar

Recently my husband and I were discussing a candidate for higher office, and he said, “Frankly, I think that candidate is about as smart as I am. That’s not good enough. I want the leader of my country to be a genius.” By the same token, we should outspokenly call our nation’s leaders to a higher standard of civilized behavior.

As Michael Seitzmann recently wrote of the first presidential debate on the economy and foreign relations, “Those issues are far too important to all of us to be obfuscated by the kind of pettiness we hope to never see in our leaders. Those who aspire to lead us are supposed to be the best among us. They are supposed to transcend and rise above those they would hope to lead.”

A breath of fresh air

It’s easy enough to cite examples of bad behavior on the parts of the Obama and McCain campaigns. It may be senior advisors and voiceover actors who say the words in the news and political ads, but we all know who “approved this message.”

So to inject a breath of fresh air into my small corner of our red-hot political atmosphere, I’m presenting recent examples of gentlemanly behavior in the 2008 presidential campaign. In at least one case, the kind words were intended to put right a former slight, which is important in its own right. To wit:

· After the dismissive reference by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to Senator Obama’s work as a community organizer during summers off from his studies at Columbia University, there was an outcry about the insult to community organizers, who work to “keep people in their homes, keep their lights on, keep food in the fridge.” Following that, at a memorial to the victims of the 9-11 attacks, including the firemen and law enforcement workers who died, Senator McCain said, “Of course I respect people who’ve served their communities, and Senator Obama’s record there is outstanding.”

· Following the announcement of Governor Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy out of wedlock, which was itself a response to a blogger’s conspiracy theory that the youngest Palin child is actually Sarah Palin’s grandchild, Senator Obama was asked for a comment. He said, “Let me be as clear as possible. I think people’s families are off-limits, and people’s children are especially off-limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president.” He then went on to say that reporters should “back off these kinds of stories.”

· Perhaps the most inflammatory of all recent political figures, Bill Clinton, has had positive things to say about both current presidential candidates. On television’s “The View” program, he opined, “I genuinely like both of them. I genuinely admire both of them. I think that we make a terrible mistake believing we have to find something wrong with the people we can’t vote for.”

Let’s do our country a service and call on our politicians to behave like this, like gentlemen and ladies, to set their standard of behavior higher and engage in honest communication at all times and on every front. Our children need heroes to look up to, and so do we. As journalist-philosopher Walter Lippmann said, “When men are brought face to face with their opponents, forced to listen and learn and mend their ideas, they cease to be children and savages and begin to live like civilized men. Then only is freedom a reality, when men may voice their opinions because they must examine their opinions. “

Tribalism and its Discontents

pointillist — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:49:02 +0000

I live in what I consider to be the greatest country on earth. Having traveled a bit internationally and having the good fortune to become educated past high school, I’ve always known that growing up middle class in the middle of the 20^th-century in America made me one of history’s most highly favored citizens.

Throughout the ages, few have lived anywhere near as well as even lower-middle-class Americans do. Few have had so many freedoms from the time their country was founded, although some had to fight longer and harder than others for their share, even here.

I say this to let you know that I know I’m lucky. I’m proud to be an American. I was thrilled to discover colonial roots that bind me genealogically to the founding of our nation. And lately I’m worried about how partisanship is tearing apart our sense of country, of being Americans together, of being the United States—and doing so in the name of patriotism.

Divide and Bludgeon

As I prepared for a small-group meeting last night, I was engrossed in a book about how my faith should be leading me and my fellow believers in actively addressing the biggest challenges in the world. (Doesn’t matter which faith. Most of them—at heart, in their purest essence–promote this same mission and share this idealism.)

In the book, the author wrote about the Rwandan genocide, about the mass killings of hundreds of thousands of members of the Tutsi tribe by members of the Hutu majority. Inconceivable horror, so far away. And then I was struck by a parallel.

Tribalism is happening here, in America, in our politics. No, we’ve not moved anywhere near the point of physical genocide. But we have gone beyond partisanship to the point of forming a mass cultural divide based on whether we’re Democrat or Republican, “progressive” or “conservative,” “spiritual” or “religious” or gunning for a theocracy. To me the effects resemble the aftermath of a 9-11-style attack on decency, trust, and communal citizenship.

While visiting Gettsyburg this summer with my family, I was shocked when the most pop culture-oriented of the group and the least interested in history became utterly engrossed in the brilliantly-presented films outlining the bloody days of the key battles. He said, “It just became clear how tenuous it was; how if one general had gotten the orders to attack a little earlier, we could be living in two countries right now.”

It’s beginning to feel that way this election season.

Red States, Blue States, Purple-faced Partisanship

Political party membership is becoming a key element of identity for a lot of Americans. But is our sense of being American becoming secondary to our identities as Republicans or Democrats?

If asked, wouldn’t anyone say that he or she is simply voting for the people he or she believes will help our country the most? Nearly all of us are sincere, even passionate, in our convictions, so why has it become so difficult to see the authenticity in those who disagree with us? It is, after all, quite possible to be sincerely misguided.

Personally, I place the blame squarely on the vicious and underhanded “Wag the Dog”-style machinations of our national political campaigns. No matter which side of the aisle we call home, any one of us who is paying enough attention must now be aware—if only at a visceral level—that we are being manipulated. In a close election, swing voters ultimately have to pick a side, after all, and smear campaigns work. Low-information voters are often swayed by the disinformation arriving in abbreviated form as a few pointed headlines aimed squarely at the attention-deficit crowd.

In a time and a culture where civility and citizenship are ghosts of their former selves, we owe it to ourselves as a nation to step back and get some perspective. To do some research. To ignore the spin and dig for the truth.

Our tribe is America.

The other party is not the enemy. The enemy is the atmosphere of half-truths, manipulation, and outright lies that’s being allowed to permeate the workings of both major parties, drift through the blogosphere and digital setboxes and satellite airwaves to tell us who to trust.

We should resist the forces that preach that politics is black and white, good against evil. And we shouldn’t settle for a political climate that makes an election a zero-sum game. Americans are too valuable a resource. Too much is at stake.