A National Bonfire
The United States has a foreign policy through which we attempt to establish a framework that will guide our relationships with other countries and that will lead to desired international outcomes. We need an equivalent domestic policy through which we will lessen the internal political divisions in the country.
Undoubtedly, on some level, that policy exists within the White House. We should, however, make that policy more public and should express its content and desired outcomes in a public manner. It should not be a policy guided by politics, the results in the mid-term elections or the long-term success of the Democratic party.
Once established we should carry out that policy in a way that places its priorities and goals above absolutely everything else. If forgoing the passage of legislation would do more to heal our internal divisions than passing the legislation, then the White House should just say that and act accordingly. If unity requires us to fill appointments only with individuals who are without known political allegiance or are members of a party different from the one making the nomination, then we should commit ourselves to that practice.
Democrats have offered appropriate levels of praise for Republicans who have rejected the dictates of party leaders to embrace country over party. Democrats can act similarly. If words expressing anger and dislike towards Senator Manchin are contrary to the best interests of forging a unified country, those words can be put aside. If spoken enmity towards corporate interests and law enforcement promote division rather than cohesion, then let us suspend that rhetoric and those feelings in service of a greater good.
If anything should be clear at this point in the fifth year of this conflict, it is that there will be no “winning” in this contest if a “v.” remains the central symbol of national politics. This is not a battle that can be won through persuasion or debate. There will be no surrender to the better idea, the higher good, or long-term demographic trends.
It is not a battle that can be won through force, power, money or a higher intelligence. As the past year should have also made obvious, it will not even be won by counting. Our last best hope is that it can be won by grace, by the plain and simple acknowledgement that the well-being and greater unification of the country are more important than the success of one political party or the personal ambitions of any one politician.
These thoughts and suggestions are not new. Our recent political history is notable for a plethora of “third way” adventurism. There has been no shortage of intelligent and well-meaning individuals who have dedicated themselves to “ending politics as usual.” Those efforts have uniformly failed to achieve that result.
The response to such efforts follows a common pattern predominated by disinterest. Those who advocate change are ignored and thought naïve, undisciplined and prone to overreacting to circumstances. To paraphrase Mr. Sinclair, it is difficult to get a woman or man to believe in something when their career is based on not believing it.
As they say about climate change though, circumstances have changed. When horrific wildfires, tornadoes and storms surround and threaten us with more frequency, we become fearful and alert. The past year politically has made all of us fearful and alert.
The time for ambition has ended. This crisis will not be averted because everything we do, we do to help others. Righteousness is not a salve. “The worst are full of passionate intensity” is not just a line in a poem. To get results we must sacrifice things that matter, surrender our causes and cede the moral high ground. I am fond of the phrase that churches are not meant to be display cabinets for saints, but emergency rooms for sinners. The United States Capitol differs not at all. We are all sinners.
Some years ago, a well-loved house master at a private secondary school was struck down and killed in the middle of the school year while crossing a street as a pedestrian. That night, the boys who were in his charge gathered on the green in front of their house and started a bonfire into which they threw their clothes, their stereo equipment, their athletic trophies and all the totems they could find of material worth and significance in their short lives.
We are in need of a national bonfire. We can start with words:
The central domestic policy of the United States is to lessen domestic strife and political division and to work to rediscover and foster a national consensus on our ideals and values that will serve to guide us in this new era.
We will place everything else we have in service of that goal. If that goal requires us to surrender our offices, step back from our political positions or hold ourselves mute on matters that we would otherwise shout down, then we shall do so.
We shall take these acts not out of a desire to surrender or a conviction that someone else’s guidance, leadership or ideas are necessarily better than ours, but out of a willingness to shed ourselves of the normal trappings of political currency and worth in service of our love for each other.
Love one another.
Probably fits on a hat.
