election 2016

Where Are the Leaders?

~ thefiddler@cox.net

[This entry was first published in the Huffington Post Blog on September 21, 2016.]

I know it’s popular to tag Millennials as the “entitled generation,” but it simply is not true. They are bright, idealistic, intelligent, and engaged. They are a great generation of emerging Americans. My “baby boomer” generation is the entitled one. We’re acting like irrational spoiled children. And worse, we’re letting young Americans down.

Look at the current political mess. Where are the leaders? “We the People” need inspiration, but there is a dearth of leadership. Across the political spectrum—local, state, and national politics—selfishness, denegation, dishonesty, and partisanship are the rule.

We know how leaders should act. We saw it during this summer’s Olympics. Athletes sacrificed to accomplish their goal. They were modest about accomplishments; they supported teammates and often their rivals; they showed us how honored they are (win or lose) to be on the field; and to a person they are patriotic representatives of country. These athletes are heroic. We need to ask ourselves why American political candidates exhibit hate, uncivil speech, partisanship, and self-aggrandizement instead of the sacrifice, mutual support, and honor like our nation’s Olympic athletes.

The American system has always been fragile—always seemed to some to be on the verge of collapse. We should never forget that the American Revolution nearly failed. Americans held on by the skin of their teeth as social, economic, and political turmoil wracked the former colonies. The Constitution had a traumatic birth. The disagreement over national government—loose confederation or centralized strong republic—pitted patriots of the Revolution against each other. The first crisis of the new republic saw President George Washington leading an army of Americans against other Americans, marching into western Pennsylvania to end the Whiskey Rebellion. A few years later Federalists in the John Adams administration suppressed free speech with the Alien and Sedition Acts. Decades later, when South Carolinians took steps to nullify a federal law, Andrew Jackson threatened federal military intervention. And don’t forget the slavery crisis that overshadowed all of the century’s politics. Throughout the 19th century, Europeans constantly predicted the United State’s demise. In 1861, a French publication, Le Monde, declared that “the republican tree” planted 80 years ago was dead, “its spoiled fruits had fallen, and its roots were rotten.”

Our struggles continued. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the fight for workers’ rights erupted in violence again and again. The Great Depression devastated families and communities across the nation. African American demands for equal rights were met first with thousands of lynchings, then with bombings and other bloody attacks. The tumultuous protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention were preceded that year by the assassinations of national leaders Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Six years later, President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal and resignation shook the foundations of the republic.

Today is no less tumultuous.

But in the past, we had leaders who reminded us that, as Americans, our revolutionary heritage lived within us. They encouraged us to accomplish the task, right the injustice, and create a more perfect union.

Today the rhetoric is altogether different. It is selfish: no trust, no empathy, no collaboration. Under the cover of faux patriotism, we spew vitriol at fellow citizens. We attack without any concern for facts or accuracy. We attack without offering constructive or collaborative solutions for proclaimed maladies. We create division among people to foment destruction. Rumor, innuendo, and flat-out lies are offered and accepted as truth.

We have forgotten that our democratic principles—the foundation of the republic—require the open, honest debate of well-informed and well-intentioned citizens. We have forgotten that maintaining our republic requires the sacrifices of many citizens, not just a few and not only those in uniform. Our freedom is not cheap. We all pay for it with devotion and sacrifice for the betterment of the polity. We are not just individuals; we are citizens and we must work together. Our revolutionary ideals are as remarkable today as they were 250 years ago.

We, the citizens of this nation, are sovereign. The success or failure of the republic rests with us. It is now our time—our responsibility to excise the cancer of partisanship, rancor, and selfishness. From presidents, to members of Congress, to state executives and legislatures, to local government and civic organizations, we must demand better leaders, even offer ourselves as those leaders. We must demand that leaders put our community, our state, and the nation first—before party, ideology, and selfish interest. Citizens will not all agree on the right course. We will debate it vigorously, but we must now hold ourselves to a higher standard than the feeble politicians claiming to be our leaders. We must open our hearts to the realization that each of us—no matter our background, creed, region, or social standing—are American citizens. We the citizens are not each other’s enemies. We each want the best for our children, our community, our state, and the nation. Collaboration and compromise is the only way to achieve it.

I may be too idealistic. But if so, I’m in good company because across our history we have been fortunate to find leaders inspired by American ideals. In 1832, Andrew Jackson was desperately trying to hold the nation together in the midst of a constitutional crisis with South Carolina nullifiers. He ended his December 1st proclamation with this prayer: “May the great Ruler of Nations grant that the signal blessings with which he has favored ours, may not, by the madness of party or personal ambition, be disregarded and lost; and may his wise Providence bring those who have produced this crisis to see the folly, before they feel the misery of civil strife; and inspire a returning veneration for that Union which, if we may dare to penetrate his designs, he has chosen as the only means of attaining the high destinies to which we may reasonably aspire.”

Politically Incorrect

~ thefiddler@cox.net

[The following was first published on the Huffington Post Blog on May 24, 2016.]

Remember when people could talk and not worry about offending someone? Remember when American culture wasn’t so obsessed with the meaning of words? When it was okay to describe ethnicities, races, genders, and religions in plain terms? It seems all the rage today. Popular culture prizes plain speech. Tell it like it is! Say what you mean! Don’t hold back! You find “plain speaking” everywhere. It invades politics and everyday conversation. It dominates online news and especially reader’s comments. What’s most interesting is that those who use such speech are buoyed by nostalgia for “the way it used to be,” recalling with pleasure a time not so long ago when America was not “politically correct.”

I don’t remember this previous era of plain speaking. I ought to, I suppose. I am a white male past middle age who grew up in the South. I remember segregated facilities. I was raised with prejudices about people who were not like me. I attended Wednesday evening prayer meetings and church revivals. I remember warnings about the evils of rock-and-roll and hippie culture. I do not claim to have been an especially good child. I learned all the words that young boys learn and I can still gather together a pithy string of obscenities and blaspheme when the mood strikes me.

But I also remember clearly that responsibility was the theme hovering above every lesson. My parents, my grandparents, my teachers, my pastors, and other role models demonstrated for me and expected from me, civility. To be hurtful and defamatory to others was, in my family, irresponsible. I was expected to show respect for others, even those whom I understood to be “different,” with whom I disagreed, and whom I disliked. I remember my mother being upset even if I called someone “stupid.” I was disciplined when I used unseemly language. My mother cast the withering gaze she referred to as “the look” and I was informed, “We do not use that kind of language.” That does not mean I was expected to suppress my opinion of situations or even other people. I was required, however, to express myself civilly and to articulate those opinions without demeaning others. In short, I was keenly aware that I was responsible for my words.

Today we may call it “authenticity” and “plain speaking,” but we have lost any sense responsibility for civil speech. Truthfully, much of our public discourse is just indecent. Referring to any individual in a sexually demeaning way is not “plain speaking.” It is offensive. Denigrating someone’s religion is not proselytizing. It is scurrilous. Using racial slurs does not communicate the speaker’s superior intellect. It is abusive. Advocating violence against others is not strength. It is loathsome.

Of course, this is not the first time in our history that we have celebrated “plain speaking.” We should not forget those past eras. The American people have, in the past, justified the enslavement of African Americans, the destruction of Native American nations, discrimination against Catholic immigrants, the exclusion of Chinese people, internment of Japanese Americans, and the suppression of civil rights. It was all justified by uncivil words.

Nor do I suggest that political correctness is not a concern. The term was first used to describe the way Nazis suppressed the free press in Germany. It was used in the Cold War to describe the Communist Party suppression of free speech in the Soviet Union. Americans, too, have suppressed opposition speech. The first time, perhaps, was when the Federalist Congress passed and John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. And in 1918, President Woodrow Wilson signed a sedition law that made it a crime to speak against the government’s war activities. But today, quite frankly, I do not see a suppression of speech. Americans are perfectly free to spew hateful rhetoric across the full political spectrum, from liberal to conservative.

Free speech is the cornerstone of our republic. Open, frank political discourse is essential to the good governance of our communities and our nation. But free speech is also a responsibility borne by each and every citizen. When “We the People” encourage or even tolerate demeaning, abusive public speech, we destroy the very purpose of free speech. Hateful, defamatory, and abusive language does not help citizens solve problems and address issues. It simply destroys the fabric of decent society that generations of Americans have worked so hard to build for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.

Do not turn a blind eye. Do not giggle like the schoolchild who heard a cuss word. Do not blame “the opposition.” If we want a civil discourse, “We the People” must insist on it. We must demonstrate it ourselves. We must demand it from others—especially our leaders. We must ostracize those who are uncivil, or better yet, drown them out with civil speech. If we fail, we doom ourselves to the kind of unbridled factionalism and infighting that may well prove to be our republic’s demise.