In the wake of a divisive campaign
and subsequent public protests of the results of the election, many are
wondering how we can manage to come together as a Nation. I am left to wonder if we can look to the
principles in our founding documents to help us step back from the partisan and
other divides that the campaign and election results have revealed.
So I’d like to pose a couple of questions:
What does it mean to be “One Nation … Indivisible?” What do the words “All Men Are Created Equal”
and “In Order to Form a More Perfect Union” mean in terms of the rhetoric and
divisions evident in the election’s aftermath?
What does a commitment to these principles require of us, as citizens,
and of our leaders?
For me personally, this is a
critical question. I think the biggest
threat to our country’s strength and progress is not who is elected President,
or what party is in the majority. The
strength of our country does not lie with any individual candidate or
party. The word or concept of “party”
does not appear anywhere in the Constitution. I believe the biggest threat to
our country lies in accepting the divisiveness in our country today, from most
of our leaders to too many of our citizens.
I believe that service to country
now requires those who believe in and love the principles on which our country
was founded, and want to see a re-commitment to these principles in our politics
and political processes, to become publicly involved in activities to change
the current path of our country.
In this work, I’m not sure that our
existing political parties are assets … as currently operating, they may in
fact be 2 of our largest obstacles. Our
first 2 Presidents warned us of the risk of political parties to our system of
a government “of, by and for the people”, with words that were spoken and
written over 220 years ago:
“There is
nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great
parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition
to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our
Constitution.”
JOHN
ADAMS, letter to Jonathan Jackson, October 2, 1789
“However [political
parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of
time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and
unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to
usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very
engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
GEORGE
WASHINGTON, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796
I am not suggesting that any party
is better than the other. I believe that one of the causes of the diversity in
our country and government today is the prioritization of our leaders in both
parties on self-interest, partisan interests and special interests, instead of
working together to advance the national interests. Candidates speak in election cycles of
“reaching across the aisle”, “coming together”, or “working together”, but too
often this happens only by trading concessions among the partisan or special
interests with each other, often at the expense of the national interest.
I am suggesting that we need to
recommit ourselves to respecting and accommodating differences in the
development of our policies and programs.
Data indicates that neither party by itself reflects the concerns of
more than 40% of the country. So one
party’s visions or policies alone will never reflect the needs and interests of
most of the country. There really is no
such thing as a “mandate” to govern under the ideologies of only one
party. The only way we will get
effective policies that reflect the concerns of most of the county is from the
parties working together in a collaborative process to develop “win-win”
policies, instead of the “win-lose” approach that dominate our policies and
politics today. Politics should not be a
“blood sport” played by the parties for the great spoils of being in the
majority. If our leaders worked together
in a “win-win” approach to national policies, then which party was in the
majority or won the Presidency might matter less than what policies work best
for the country overall.
I’d like to recall the final
sentence in the Declaration of Independence: “And for the support of this
Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we
mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” There would be no United States of America
today if the leaders of the 13 Colonies had not come together, respecting and
accommodating the diverse concerns of the very different regions in the
country. There were slave states and
free states, there were Southern states and Northern states, there were states
with agricultural economies and those with industrial economies, and there were
states with historical ties to England and to other “home” countries. Yet they came together, to speak and share
their own principles and concerns, but not standing so firmly on them that they
refused to accommodate other points of view from their own. They recognized that the United States can be
strong only when “they mutually pledge to each other” their lives, their
fortunes and their sacred Honor.
We seem to have fallen far from
those ideals today in our politics and political discussions. How do we reclaim
that heritage? I would suggest two options for consideration:
1. We as
citizens need to respect and value the differences that exist among our fellow
citizens. We need to be humble enough to realize that we alone do not have
the only “right” vision for what’s best for the country. That in a country as diverse as ours, based on
the principles of equality and justice for all citizens, that we need to
respect, understand and accommodate the visions of those who think differently
than we do. This is what a “win-win”
process does.
We see examples across the world of
societies where one segment of society cannot respect the other, denies their
rights, and in extreme cases, clashes violently. We have always been unique in the history of
the world by our commitment to being “one nation … indivisible”. We have not let race, creed, economic
standing, regional backgrounds, etc., divide our country. In times of crises or
disaster we come together as Americans based on our sense of community. We need
to see that the path we are on is the largest crisis we have ever faced, and
choose a different path.
2. We
need to demand that our leaders work together to develop policies and programs
that represent most of America as well as our own. If we believe only OUR visions and concerns
are the “right” approach for all of America, and citizens on the other side
believe the same, how will we ever move forward as a country? If we can’t move forward as a united country,
we will cease to be the strong and effective force for good in the world we
have largely been for the past 240 years.
Everyone who graduates from high
school likely knows of the quote by John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you;
ask what you can do for your country”.
That embodies the idea that citizenship requires service to country, not
to self, or to party, or to special interests.
But there is another quote by Kennedy that is even more relevant to the situation we now face:
“For, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his
interest in politics, 'holds office'; every one of us is in a position of
responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get
depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the
boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that
we demand and deserve.”
If the polls are right, and 65% to
70% of the public believes the country is “on the wrong track”, then we the
citizens need to look at ourselves as being an enabling force. In the past, we have punished those in office who have
collaborated with members of the other party, and “compromised” party positions to accommodate differences with others to address truly national
needs and interests. Today, we need to
vote AGAINST any of our representatives who do not respect the differences that
exist in our country, and aren’t willing or able to work with the
representatives of different points of view.
The direction of our country is truly in our collective hands as
citizens. Are we the generation that will
decide to change these trends? If not
us, who? If not now, when?
