I once had a political science professor who was very tall, basketball-player tall, and very well spoken. He made everything sound as if it were an important brand-new thought. I took copious notes and believed I was learning the gospel of governing.
“American politics is a rubber band. Pull it too far to the left and it snaps back,” he said. “Pull it too far to the right and it snaps back.”
He was the “you never have to worry” sort of guru, so I never did. I loved my country without anxiety, certain that we could right whatever went wrong. Strongly believed that while the crooks and the crazies would always be with us, they would always be a minority. The majority would be, now and forever, sane and sensible, essentially kind and nonviolent.
Anxiety
I hate to see my friends suffer, and they are. They are anxiety ridden that the worst will happen. I cannot imagine that in eight days, we will elect a felon, a would-be dictator, and a man in failing health. I cannot believe that breaking news heard around the pump at the gas station is being proliferated as if it were sourced reports from respected newspapers. But, perhaps, my sleepless friends are right.
What is the news alert from the gas station? A 900-car parade will roll through Blue Massachusetts on Election Day. The cars will be decked out with MAGA flags. I have no idea if it is true. I have no opinion on how efficacious it could be or even what the point would be. I do credit reports that posit a violent response if Trump loses. I think the 82nd Airborne could take ‘em, but if violence happens, it is a sad turn of events.
What’s happening?
Here is what I think is happening. We pulled the rubber band too far to the left, and it did not snap back. Instead, opposing forces pulled the rubber band too far to the right. Our rubber band—representing American politics—is overextended, distantly divided, sanctimonious at both ends, and stagnant. It is stuck, immobile in that position. My political science professor did not anticipate this. Who did?
Finding a solution
It would take a master negotiator and a lifetime of experience to even find the first step. It would take an empath, someone with an understanding of how others feel and how what we say lands. It would require a deep ability to forgive, stemming from a sincere belief that absolutely no one is all bad. The good stumble and make mistakes. The bad, perhaps inadvertently, do some good. Well, we just fired that guy, so, now what?
Take the first step. It is a belief: No one is all bad; absolutely no one is useless; and every human being deserves a dignified response. Tough? Nearly impossible in this environment, nonetheless…
Whether Trump wins or loses and is heard no more, we must repair before we can move forward. We must dig down and work as we never did before.
Begin with an idea that is both unique and liberating: Everyone is wrong. Add a second idea: We can only find the right path together. Third: There are two books that can guide us as we begin again to move toward a more perfect union.
Two books
One is the Bible, and the other is “Pursuit of Happiness” by Jeffrey Rosen.
The Book of Proverbs provides insight into living a good life. It evinces the belief that the just human is more than the example of how to live. The just, righteous human is the basis of the existence of the world. Just as the foundation supports a building, the just support the world.
“When the storm wind passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.” When the righteous come to the world, good comes to the world and misfortune is removed, but when the righteous pass away, disaster comes and goodness leaves the world.
This is the foundation for Jewish legend that every generation has 36 saints on whose piety the fate of the world depends. Unrecognized by their fellow men and women, unknown even to each other, they are said to be the symbolic water carriers.
Be that. Start now. Why? Because that is very close to what our founding fathers thought they were. If we have to begin again after a decade of bilge—we need to learn from them.
The second book is “The Pursuit of Happiness.” Just what did our founding fathers mean when they wrote that we have the right to pursue happiness?
Rosen is the president of the National Constitution Center. He suggests that Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton viewed happiness as righteousness.
They read Cicero, Epictetus, Xenophon, David Hume, John Locke, and Adam Smith. They believed “that the quest for happiness is a daily practice, requiring mental and spiritual self-discipline, as well as mindfulness and rigorous time management.”
Our founders would not have recognized or credited gratification of desires and selfishness as happiness. They sought the balance between reason and passion. They believed “moderating emotions is the secret of tranquility of mind; that tranquility of mind is the secret of happiness; that daily habits are the secret of self-improvement; and that personal self-government is the secret of political self-government.”
Each man, Rosen reveals, sought an avenue to happiness, which was justice, righteousness, and self-discipline. Adams, called one of the most self-regarding men of his age, struggled to subdue his vanity. Jefferson strove for “cultivating his mind, body, thoughts, and faculties in order to achieve the mental tranquility he was determined to maintain at all costs.”
Evidently, our founders thought differently than we do. Perhaps we must begin think more like them, however, to ease the tension in our political rubber band and find our way back to equilibrium as a country, regardless of who stands in the Oval Office.
