Election days aren’t all that emotional for the politically alienated. I feel a bit sad that both parties can’t have a bad night, but at least one will, so that’s something. Everyone seems agreed that it’ll be the Republicans this time, and they certainly have it coming. But I have no doubt the Democrats will gloat shamelessly, massively over-read their “mandate,” and seize upon the opportunity to make some awful blunders of their own. One takes for granted nowadays that resentment, deranged ideology, and a lust for vengeance are far more determinative of our politics than any prudent assessment of what might be good for the country.
But no, don’t go away! I’m not going to subject you to a torrent of bitterness. I may hate our political parties, but I’m not planning to move from there into a tiresome lecture about “getting what we deserve good and hard.” Because really… do we deserve this? Speaking for myself, I rather think I deserve better. I think the nation deserves better.
Of course, I grasp H.L. Mencken’s point: citizens of a democracy necessarily get what they deserve because that’s how the system works. We deserve it because we picked it. I do in fact feel deep frustration sometimes with my compatriots, and their willingness to be the pawns of the corrupt and power-hungry. And I’ve thought through those questions too. Once, a few years back, I put on my moral-philosopher hat, and wrote a careful, contemplative essay on the ethics of voting. Feel free to read it if you’re seeking that kind of advice.
My ten-thousand-foot view, nevertheless, is that Americans as a group really are better than their ghastly politics. I must credit my social scientist friends (thank you, George Hawley and Jesse Smith!) for helping me to grasp this point: the most hateful and deranged elements of our politics, though real and depressingly visible, aren’t particularly popular. They don’t represent what most Americans actually want. The public wants a saner politics, though it’s proven quite hard to build, for a range of explicable reasons.
One way to think about it is just to say that there are some very hard questions on the table right now, to which no one has adequate answers. Partisan politics tends to obscure that problem, because you don’t win elections by admitting frankly that “we’re all in the dark a bit here.” You win by presenting yourself as capable and wise, and the other guy as bumbling or malevolent. When unanswered questions loom large on the horizon, politicians get very deft at deflection and misdirection, which gives rise to an intensely performative and emotion-driven politics. This is bad, obviously; we end up with a political class that perpetuates obvious lies and sponsors initiatives so idiotic, we have to wonder if the architects themselves even believe that they’re doing something good. It’s all very sordid and depressing, and yet, I return to the above point: Americans don’t particularly like their political class. Though there are obvious exceptions, our demagogues in general are neither ardently loved nor greatly feared. They are objects of public contempt. We know they’re bad men. Why can’t we find better men?
We need to “come back to ourselves” in some fundamental ways. Recognize and take pride in our real strengths. Rekindle our willingness to do hard things. Recover the sense of dignity we once found in being a free people.
My suggestion is something like this. We can’t find better men because a healthier politics must begin by reckoning with some fairly hard truths. Nobody likes being the bearer of bad news, which is understandable; if you’ve ever read, say, the Bible, you may have noticed that those folks tend to have stressful lives. But if truth-tellers aren’t very welcome, the public square will fill with liars. If the work that needs doing is deeply unpopular, clowns and charlatans will take over instead. If moral integrity is a serious liability, our political class will be heavily compromised. We must deal appropriately with the elephant-in-room problems that are distorting our politics. Until we can summon that courage, we will be ruled by cowards.
I’ll keep this one brief. Today belongs to the election analysts, so I’ll toss out a quick thought and bow out. Here it is: Our implicit “social contract,” developed in the post-war period, has become deeply dysfunctional and needs re-negotiation. We need to rekindle a more freedom-oriented politics. It’s the American way. It’s also the Christian way, or so I believe, and it’s maddening to me how so many Christians have persuaded themselves otherwise in recent years, even arguing sometimes that too much freedom is in fact our core problem.
Clearly people don’t always use their freedoms well. But to me it seems obvious that freedom will in the long run tend to benefit the people in possession of the one true faith. Do we… not think that’s us? A faith with a millennia-long track record of converting diverse cultures and shaping civilizations should not doubt its ability to hold its own under conditions of freedom.
I’m still proud to be an American, and I still think the United States is better positioned than anybody else to course-correct and thrive again. Europeans in general are more stagnant, more reliant on the caretaker state, less religious, and now wrestling with the cultural convulsions that result when you’re obliged to import a significant share of your workforce from abroad. We’re better off than they are. We’re much better off than authoritarian regimes, which are by nature not adaptable. But we need to “come back to ourselves” in some fundamental ways. Recognize and take pride in our real strengths. Rekindle our willingness to do hard things. Recover the sense of dignity we once found in being a free people.
Let’s say that “freedom” is November’s theme. I’ll say more in coming weeks about what I think this all means for us politically, which is not a Tea Party redux, nor a Reaganite redux, though I think both groups got some things right. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, because I’m not a megalomaniac. But I can at least frame certain questions as one who, at this point, truly feels no loyalty to either of our political parties. I love my faith, and I love America. I love Americans. We can do better than this. And for our children’s sake, we need to.
Vote wisely. God bless the Land of the Free.
'Our implicit “social contract,” developed in the post-war period, has become deeply dysfunctional and needs re-negotiation. We need to rekindle a more freedom-oriented politics.'
We do seem to be in an era of regime-level politics. We're not arguing so much about how high income taxes should be or what the healthcare market should look like (although those debates are ongoing), but rather the fundamental character of the polity. Who are we? What are our non-negotiables? Who decides?
These are inherently high-stakes questions. Burke worried social tranquility was impossible when politics approaches first-principles territory. Perhaps he was right.
By the way you are right about Europe. Unfortunately.