By PETER BERGER
Back in Napoleon’s day, a philosopher who’d survived the French Revolution observed that “in a democracy people get the leaders they deserve.” Like most proverbs it doesn’t apply literally in every circumstance. People subjugated by force of arms aren’t culpable in the same way as those who vote their tyrants into office, although they may subsequently be accountable for the tyranny they tolerate. In a representative government such as ours, I might argue that I don’t deserve a malignant leader I didn’t vote for. My neighbor who regrets his vote might honestly claim he was misled by an unscrupulous candidate. These days some Americans blame our troubles on the Electoral College.
The exercise of self-government doesn’t just happen on Election Day. A republic is more than its mechanisms. It requires public servants willing to put the public good above their own. It also requires informed citizens willing to do the same. It requires the wisdom to discern between public issues and private concerns. It requires fairness, principle, and moderation, administered with reason. It isn’t easy, which is why we often don’t get it right.
Some times, though, we get it more wrong than other times.
Some times we get it perilously wrong.
The time we need to talk about isn’t the last time. The time that matters more is now.
We’re already engaged in the next election, which won’t happen for a year and a half. Part of our problem is we spend more time running for government than we do governing. A Congressional term is only two years and a Presidential term only four. What sense does it make to spend such an outsized proportion of time in office seeking that office?
My concerns reside on both sides of the aisle. Among the Democrats I worry about the arrogance of inexperience, the intolerance for moderation, the preoccupation with style, the cult of the novice, and the priority given gender and racial identity. If we’re going to base merit and debate eligibility on how many small donors candidates muster, it’s worth remembering how many of us bought pet rocks and currently spend our money on miracle diets and wrinkle creams.
We need leaders who tell us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear. We need citizens who insist on more than slogans and candidates who both explain what they can do and acknowledge what they can’t.
Republicans, meanwhile, are all but silent as the leader of the free world obsessively assaults a dead American war hero and lifetime public servant. Their damnable timidity is consistent with their calculated unwillingness to confront the President over matters of state and policy. In the name of the First Amendment, the former chairman of the House intelligence committee is suing assorted citizens for a quarter of a billion dollars over insulting tweets. The backdrop for all this is a President whose business affairs and administration rival the intrigue and corruption common in despots’ palaces.
Like many Americans I’ve been watching our President. I don’t mean commentary about him. I mean the man himself in his own words. I’ve witnessed his disconnected, narcissistic ramblings, the blame he lays on everyone but himself, his groundless self-congratulation, his serial unfinished sentences, his vague allusions to things people are saying, things that are happening, and his favorite catch-all, “and other things.”
The facts he presents are chronically inaccurate when they’re not outright lies. His illogic is spectacular. This is not “the greatest economy that we’ve had in our history,” nor was his election, as reflected in either the popular vote or the Electoral College, anywhere close to “the greatest electoral victory in the history of our country.” That said, the President is right that he got more votes than Robert Mueller. That’s because the office of special counsel isn’t elective. Neither — deliberately — is the federal judiciary. That’s the way our Constitutional government works.
The Electoral College aside, if the President hopes to discredit Mr. Mueller by citing the will of the millions who voted for Donald Trump, he needs to somehow account for the will of the several millions more who voted for Hillary Clinton.
Election returns have nothing to do with moral or criminal guilt. The special counsel’s findings aren’t “a report out of nowhere.” Grand jury indictments aren’t determined by government employees or politicians. They’re handed down by citizens like you and me.
I don’t expect to convince anyone who sees no fault in our President, and I don’t believe everyone who supports him is racist or malign in their intent. I’m speaking to those of you who support him but cringe.
There are things in heaven and earth that matter more than political agendas, truths that are eternal, consequences that are inescapable.
The more we accept his offensive words and actions, and the more we develop the capacity and will to tolerate those offenses, the more we become offenders ourselves.
When you read history, you encounter people and nations who leave you wondering how they didn’t see their fate coming. Perhaps you’ve had that sense at times concerning your own life or the life of someone near you.
I believe we’re living through one of those times that people will read about someday.
Reality television is scripted. Real reality, like truth, is inexorable.
It catches up with you even if you don’t see it coming.
Peter Berger has taught English and history for thirty years. Poor Elijah would be pleased to answer letters addressed to him in care of the editor.
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