Stray Thoughts

By: William J. Bennett

The problem is not that modern politics has become particularly uncivil and nasty. The problem today is that politics has become boring and unengaging. Too much political discourse is lame, mushy, and vapid.

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[Thomas] Jefferson closed one of his letters to Madison with the hope that “the education of the common people will be attended to; convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty.” Madison echoed the sentiment: “The diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”

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The greatest debates in American history have involved sharp, vigorous, spirited clashes. That’s fine; politics was never intended to be confused with a garden party. This cultural war is not an undertaking for people with delicate sensibilities.

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Politicians often try to protect their views by suggesting that sincerity can substitute for sound reasoning. [But] sincerity has nothing to do with whether [one] is right or wrong. Sincerity is not the test of truth. Sincerity is a reliable guide to action or belief only when it is joined with intelligence. No fact was ever altered by believing it wasn’t one, no matter how sincerely.

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There is plenty to be disappointed, angry, and even furious about the way politics is practiced. This side of Washington was captured best by C.S. Lewis’s description of hell:

"We must picture Hell as a state where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment. Everyone wishes everyone else’s discrediting, and ruin; everyone is an expert in the stab in the back."

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There is no oversupply of good character anywhere. Character is part and parcel of the individual, not his party or institution. People with enough regard for the common good merit confidence and praise and are worthy of Walter Lippmann’s reminder: “Those in high places are the custodians of a nation’s ideals, of the beliefs it cherishes, of its permanent hopes, of the faith which makes a nation out of a mere aggregation of individuals.”

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Pericles said the secret of democracy is courage. Assume the worst, act your best. Assume there is going to be trouble with everything, that nothing is going to go through unchallenged. And be ready. Prepare more of the case than you think you are going to need. In the face of distortions of what you believe, the key is perseverance; hold shape and keep explaining your views; if you articulate your views well, forcefully, and often, your point of view will gradually get across.

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The character of a society is determined by how well it transmits true and time-honored values from generation to generation.

[Excerpts from The De-valuing of America: The Fight for Our Culture and Our Children; 1994]