Where have all the statesmen gone?
We are in the midst of yet another relentlessly negative and divisive political season in America. It already seems interminable, yet we still have four months to go. It promises to be the most expensive election cycle in history, with truth increasingly simply an afterthought, a casualty of campaigning. The palpable fear is that a toxic confluence of foreign intervention, a malevolent social media influence campaign, election lies and denialism and obscene amounts of money will cast a sinister pall over the electoral outcome. The political will to even acknowledge, let alone address, this dire threat to our representative democracy is woefully absent. This sad fact does not bode well for our country.
What about beyond 2024? In order to reinvigorate America, our “leaders,” such as they are, must recall that this country was founded by and has been sustained by statesmen and return to those roots. These original statesmen were certainly flawed and politically motivated, but not irredeemably so. We long ago abandoned the notion that our leaders be paragons of virtue. Today, we simply yearn for a modicum of decency, a low bar that is often unmet.
We are not born Republicans or Democrats; we are born Americans. Is there a politician left, on the local, state or national level, who is willing to announce publicly that he or she will put country above party? Dishearteningly, it may be that we are bereft of such leaders and that the ranks are filled only with feckless and servile syncophants, devoid of integrity, wholly lacking political courage and committed to only their welfare, rather than the common good. The dearth of leaders faithful to the Constitution, the rule of law and to the public interest is often a plague on both parties. Are there leaders out there interested in conducting the business of government to promote the general welfare and not their own?
At the risk of sounding Pollyannaish and politically naïve, let us propose a Grand Experiment. In late 2024, following the November 5 general election, we the people should demand that Congress stay in session and conduct the people’s business for twice the usual paltry 138 days per year that Congress now remains in Washington. We need our elected representatives to devote this additional time to address the daunting, but not insurmountable challenges we face as the United States of America. These problems include long neglected immigration reform, health care inequities, domestic terrorism, gun violence, climate change, affordable housing, bolstering voting rights, opioid addiction, the demand side of the drug problem and judicial reform.
The primary impediments to seeking to debate and hopefully move toward a reasonable resolution of at least some of these problems are political posturing and an almost loathsome aversion to bipartisanship. So long as the focus of our leaders is on winning the next election, no matter the cost, rather than on what they can do together to advance the public good, the gridlock will remain intractable.
At the inception of the Grand Experiment, congressional leadership should select two of these issues, hold meaningful debate and consult weekly with the president, until a standalone bill (without earmarks) is passed to address each of these pressing concerns. This would do much to return a spirit of compromise and bipartisanship that would bode well for the future wellbeing of We the People. We need to be “we-centric,” not “me-centric.” This just might prompt similar action on the part of representatives at the local and state level to demonstrate the political fortitude to work together to advance the interests of their constituents over their own political fortunes.
Let this be a clarion call to all those who want to be remembered as being part of the solution, not as part of the perpetuation of the blight of partisan rancor, lack of political will and ideological rigidity. Our leaders need to step up and embrace the challenge of working together, across the aisle, to put us constituents first for once. The interests of the many must predominate over the interests of the few.
We should be asking our elected representatives two questions. First, are you proud of the country that you are helping to shape that you will leave for your children and grandchildren? Second, do you want your legacy to be that of a statesman/stateswoman whose focus is governing effectively to promote the general welfare or that of a craven shill for the chosen few whose agenda is self-aggrandizement?
Steve McCloskey is a resident of Bonita Springs.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Where have all the statesmen gone?
