Politics reflects our own human nature. There are stories about President Reagan and Tip O’Neal sharing a cocktail after they had excoriated each other politically—not personally, earlier in the day. Former District Judge Mike Wetherall told me the story about Senator Frank Church warning Barry Goldwater as they were eating lunch together in the Senate dining room, that he—Senator Church, was going to excoriate Senator Goldwater on the Senate floor about an upcoming position on a vote. They then allegedly shock hands after the floor speech.
People who first of all respect themselves, are able to respect others even when they disagree with each other. My Quaker grandmother early in my life tried to teach me that the real danger of hatefulness is that it is ultimately turned inward. Once that happens many other things happen in the heart of the “hater”. That is precisely why we are called on to “pray for our enemies”. That inward projection of an outward hate can destroy an organization filled with hate and a disdain for another person or group. Organizations die from within, because of the inward hate of individuals The words “Rome conquered Greece and then Greece conquered Rome” talk to the idea that if virtue doesn’t settle within an individual, organization, or institution, they are soon destroyed from within. When virtue overtakes a corrupt person or institution, it thrives.
C. S. Lewis spends time in Mere Christianity reflecting on that last statement and his thoughts parallel those of my grandmother’s. On reflecting on the words “hate the sin and love the sinner “ he had this to say
“Its years later occurred to me that there was one man who I had been (forgiving to—jml) all my life—myself. ‘Hate the sin, love the sinner’ is not straw-splitting, we all do this for ourselves—hating our own cowardice, greed, or conceit, but continuing to love ourselves because we regret becoming the sort of person who does such things”.
Christianity calls on us to reduce by even a small fraction the cruelty that is projected by others onto each other—maybe even onto you and me. We should reject those actions just like Jesus rejected the actions of the “money changers” in the temple, remembering that evil acts are done not by evil people, but by people who have allowed evil and self-hate to reside in their hearts.
In politics, the respect that Senators Church and Goldwater had for each other was grounded in the common virtues that they shared. Neither was particularly religious or devout or devoted to any Ecclesiastical dogmas. They each at one time or another admitted to praying and the need to be grounded in the thought that a higher power was ultimately in control. Without personal knowledge, their beliefs were probably more Aristotelian—prime mover ideals, if you will. But they each certainly understood that they weren’t their own God, and they ultimately each were uncapable of making up their own rules for life. In short neither was a “humanist” or a true progressive.
Today over and again in the national news we see elected representatives of WE THE PEOPLE using swear words and the “f…bomb” to degrade the character of their opponents. This “vibe of hate” comes from both the left and the right. It says more about those speaking the words, than it does about the target of their words.
In the Idaho State House, we see the same type of personal attacks. These attacks become even more personal because in our small state, WE THE PEOPLE are many times on a first name bases with our politicians. Let’s argue about the issues—$2billion of lost money because of LUMA, millions lost in The Idaho Health Data Exchange. I don’t care who is responsible, an unnamed bureaucrat or an unnamed department head, we need accountability, not a stake through a head hoisted above the State Capital or the door of a fake news outlet.
Finally, the personal nature of politics becomes most vicious and hurtful at the local level. City Hall, HOAs, ACHD etc. We know these people and they know us. Small words of calumny and false witness, lead to acts of petty vandalism, and that soon escalate into physical threats. Hurtful words that start out as a prank and a rumor, become the bases of a public cause and character assassination.
The common virtue that was exemplified by the way Senators Goldwater and Church dealt with their differences, is sadly no longer present in our political debate. The controlled passion of a great speech or the great written word is lost when speakers are shouted down by the opposition, or when others tolerate the hateful words of a hateful person.
Knowing how much those people must hate themselves I have trouble understanding. I will pray to forgive them just as I pray for God to forgive me.
Time to get back to great speeches and words. Using the f… bomb to talk about our President and shouting down a speaker at City Hall or an HOA meeting may be fun, but it accomplishes nothing. Let’s keep our arguments grounded in logic and in the common virtues that have been handed down to us for thousands of years.
