Self-Evident Truths
I recently had a rich conversation with a friend about the
political tensions and social divisions we currently face.
I mentioned that because of Title IV (federal financial aid)
expectations, as a university leader, I had often said that I couldn’t be
publicly political, but that I had been corrected by a colleague from a sister
institution who averred, “We can’t be partisan, but we must be political.”
This is absolutely true. College presidents have an
obligation to lobby for education and to engage in efforts that protect and
support the missions of the institutions they serve. I have a professional responsibility
to advocate for my university on a regional, state, and national level.
I also have an ethical obligation to our surrounding
community to pursue state and federal support for our students and the
institution. As the largest private employer in Snyder County, Susquehanna
University’s success redounds to the health and vitality of our region. It has
often been said that “All politics is local.” The implication is that voters
are driven by what happens in their own back yards, but the literal meaning of “politics”
is “the affairs of the city,” so local has always been at the core.
What does it mean to be political, but not partisan? For years,
when students have asked me what candidates I will endorse, I have replied, “I
will vote for the person who will best support the arts and education.” I am
confirming to them that my choice is driven by platform, and that it is in line
with my professional position. I am being political, not partisan.
I have a professional obligation to be political, but not
partisan. On Independence Day, I am struck by the realization that this should
be the goal of all citizens.
A few years ago, I was visiting with a member of the House
of Representatives (from another state), and I asked his position on a
particular topic. The response was, “It depends on where the other side comes
out.” This is being partisan and not political, and it is a toxin that plagues our
nation.
In January, I had the privilege to attend a workshop led by
William Doherty, Professor of Family Social Science at the University of
Minnesota and co-founder of Braver Angels,
a community organization that seeks to depolarize our nation by seeking common
ground between “reds” and “blues.” As Prof. Doherty noted, most people are not
liberal or conservative. We are each an amalgam of varied positions across a
range of topics. An individual may be socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
Many who oppose abortion rights adamantly support the death penalty, while
others oppose or support both.
Our individual ideologies are often scattered across a
spectrum. Not that long ago, that kind of richness existed within our two-party
system. When I was a kid, politicians would frequently be referred to as a
conservative, moderate, or liberal Republican, or as a conservative, moderate,
or liberal Democrat. This fostered opportunities for much richer discussions of
ideas and bipartisan achievements than our contemporary “us or them” mantra.
Politics is about values, ethics, and compromise. Compromise
is a necessary condition of collective action, but it is not always good.
Where might we be as a society had the Founding Fathers retained
the abolition of slavery from the original draft of Declaration of Independence? Would we still be a colonial dependency
if the abolitionists hadn’t compromised and struck the clause?
Our greatest triumphs and our most egregious sins as a nation
have often been born from compromise. The definition of the outcome has often been
whether those in the right or the wrong acquiesced or stood their ground. Progress,
by its definition, is incremental, but compromise built on a bet that the next
step will be expeditious and continue in the right direction is laden with
risk.
Our failures as a nation have occurred when we have been unable
to recognize moral issues as being right or wrong rather than right or left.
Our greatest successes have been those moments in our history when ethics,
rather than affiliation, have won the day.
As I have written many times before, the founders of this
nation were profoundly flawed people, as are we all. They seized a moment in
history where brave and radical change could be achieved. The Declaration of Independence established
an ideological foundation that would not be a lived reality for many in their
lifetimes. Although they set a malleable prenatal nation into motion that has since
made significant incremental progress, equality, unalienable rights, and a
government deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed is a self-evident
truth that is not enjoyed in common.
We may be living in another rare moment, when, as a deeply
flawed people, we can make another heroic leap, and secure for all our citizens
the “equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them.”[1]
I hope we have the moral courage to make good on that
promise from the first Independence Day. It is most certainly political, but it
is not partisan. It is not right or left, but it is most certainly right.
