Politics is the second oldest profession, goes the adage. Second to prostitution. Both involve squandering a sacred honor.
A more family-friendly reference might be flip-flopper, or boot-licker. If you prefer a five-dollar word, sycophant will suffice.
We have witnessed several breathtaking displays of this over the past few years. The pressure to be liked, to be re-elected along with the pressure of constituency groups are simply too much for many. Added today are the cable opinion channels and social media, which provide a constant carpet bombing of congressional offices with the pressure to behave a certain way. Core convictions often melt away for the faint of heart and those whose ambition supersedes principle and conviction.
My friend, former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican from Wyoming, famously said, “In politics there are no right answers, only a continuing flow of compromises among groups resulting in a changing, cloudy, and ambiguous series of public decisions — where appetite and ambition compete openly with knowledge and wisdom.”
Opinion
During my time in Congress, when constituents were unhappy with a controversial vote or position I had taken, they had to sit down, write a letter, usually in longhand, put it in an envelope, address it, stamp it and get it to the post office. Newspapers and broadcast media were all straight news. There were no opinion channels or social media to feed the constant tsunami of keeping the base inflamed with apocalyptic forecasts if the other side had a victory on any particular issue.
I recognized that I had been elected to represent my constituents, and that my rhetoric and votes should reflect that. I also had deep convictions that were non-negotiable. I took particular heat on several issues, including the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, the Trinity River Barge Canal initiative, the Equal Rights Amendment, other women’s rights issues and one gay rights bill I sponsored.
I tried to remember the wisdom of British parliamentarian Edmund Burke about what constituents can expect from their representatives: “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
John F. Kennedy, while still in the U.S. Senate, wrote Profiles in Courage, a collection of the stories of eight senators throughout American history who defied the pressures of making the popular vote, and remained true to their consciences, sometimes paying the price of losing their seats.
“In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience — the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men — each man must decide for himself the course he will follow,” Kennedy wrote.
Thankfully, amid the head-spinning sycophancy of so many recently, there are officeholders who have had courage to match their convictions. These have put their careers on the line for a higher cause, including defense of the U.S. Constitution. On both the political right and political left, sterling examples stand out.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is a true-blue conservative and one so loyal to former President Donald Trump that he became known to some as Bobble Head Mike. Yet, in a moment of truth that few will ever face, including a threat to his own life, he met the test, being true to the U.S. Constitution by refusing to decertify the 2020 election results. For that, he was rewarded with derision and left off this year’s ballot.
Conservative Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who defended law and order by co-chairing the January 6 Committee, lost both her congressional seat and her position as chair of the House Republican Conference.
Another conservative Republican and member of the January 6 Committee, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. military and a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, is no longer in public service.
On the Democratic side, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia broke party ranks to oppose several measures of President Joe Biden and his own leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer. He has also decided the world’s second oldest profession is not for him.
Likewise, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s breaks with her own party on principles that she held became so problematic in her home state that she decided not to run for re-election.
And then there is Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist and two-time presidential candidate who has never come close to the Democratic Party’s nomination. Yet, he has never wavered in articulating his beliefs.
The list of those whose appetite and ambition has “trumped” their previously stated beliefs (pun intended) is a long one. Few top J.D. Vance, who now runs on the ticket with a man he once labeled “America’s Hitler” guilty of “serial sexual assault.”
The recent Republican convention saw a parade of former Trump critics bend the knee and offer their tributes to him: Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, Elise Stefanik. Each of these have been harsh critics of Trump, but not, apparently, when they stand to lose power or money.
In the 1850s, there was a political party known as the Know Nothing Party. A potato famine in Ireland had created a mass migration of poor, uneducated, Catholic immigrants to America. The Know Nothing Party was an anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic backlash, an ugly preamble to today’s politics.
Given the demographic makeup of the country, still in its infancy and finding its way, one can be a little more forgiving with the Know Nothings than with the xenophobic wing of today’s Republican Party. The “Know Betters” is a proper and accurate label for that group, most of whom have Ivy League educations.
Opportunism has always been a feature of the democratic process in both parties. Yet, it is hard to find a time in American history that even approaches this one.
I remain optimistic and still inspired by a Republican Party that met its test during the Watergate period, when six of my colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee voted for the three articles of impeachment of Nixon. The release of the Watergate tapes produced the proverbial smoking gun. I, along with many members, spent 20 hours with headphones on, listening to the entire 18-month unfolding of the cover-up. There was no avoiding the conclusion that “high crimes and misdemeanors” had been committed. There’s no avoiding today, yet some of our best and brightest manage to try.
The closing lines of Profiles In Courage teach us: “The stories of past courage … can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.”
One is left to wonder, when some of our elected leaders look into their souls, what do they see?
Alan W. Steelman is a former Republican member of Congress representing Texas’ 5th District from 1973 to 1977.
Part of our opinion series The American Middle, this essay highlights the importance of putting integrity over party.
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Publish date : 2024-08-10 06:00:00
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