“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
America’s foundations were built to preclude suicide. Checks and balances and social justice promises in our Constitution are as crucial to the body politic as our heart and brain. But, there is no assurance against destructive conduct—only a healthy body politic is capable of continual renewal.
Americans and thus America has approached the edge. Recall the self-destructive conduct that led to the Civil War. States divided and then seceded from the Union. Irrational thought—the justification of slavery— became more important than family ties. I grew up in Southern Missouri, just 20 miles south of my birthplace was the Confederate Capitol of Missouri. I know the stories of hate, division and the destruction that followed.
American strength has been built around unity. Study our literature, poetry and lyrics. Study the 272 words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address or the 701 words in his 2nd Inaugural Address. It only takes several minutes to read both. Every single day in our ordinary affairs we are implored to improve ourselves—better health, enjoyment, weight and the like. And we know that the best organizations have continual improvement in their DNA.
So let me apply this truth to politics and government. But first, I would ask you to move on to another column if you are satisfied that our public affairs are in good order.
If you are still with me, you are probably familiar with the polls. Weekly we are told that a vast majority of us believe Washington is broken. We need to keep in mind that in a democracy, the work in our National Capitol is a measure of our stewardship. Congress and the White House are occupied by people we elect.
One of my several back stories was as a politician—a Republican in what was then a Democratic State. I was campaign manager, in 1972, for former Governor of Missouri Kit Bond. Kit, in winning, received tens of thousands of votes from the other side; otherwise he would have lost.
Today by the time the political campaigns are over, the Primary and General Election battlefields are often deeply rutted with more than just traces of blood. In Congressional elections, gerrymandering often assures that small-minded meanness is not punished. Gerrymandering eliminates the need to reach beyond tribal affiliations—it is an attack on democracy and civility.
We all know about campaign buttons, bumper strips and TV ads. What we should concentrate on is money and computers.
As government has gotten bigger and bigger and more and more regulatory, few if any business organizations are neutral about its conduct. As well there are public employee unions. Embedded interests insure that the growth of campaign budgets outpace almost any economic barometer we choose to follow.
A huge hunk of this money is spent on the derivatives of computer technology. The computer enabled micro-targeting of voters recalls the old phrase, “garbage in, garbage out”. Although in this case the garbage is conjured by clever assassins who specialize in political destruction.
The formula is simple. Find out the least admirable things your opponent has done and then bomb credulous voters with hyper-emotional messages. Result: bloody and deeply rutted fields of combat with hardened and cynical survivors whose self-worth and future rely on rhetorical pillage. If you are entertained by these politicians, you can observe them any night on the cable news channels that specialize in polarization. We are now in a 21st Century version of a Civil War.
There is no way to simply turn back the clock to a more civil time. A deeply involved government paired with free speech guarantees has transformed democracy into a capital intensive affair. There is only one option: adapt, change the way we elect.
Beginning in 2020 a State that normally elects Republicans but is enlivened by a strong independent spirit, Alaska, began Ranked Choice Voting, joining Maine. The process is as simple as choosing where to eat out. If reservations are needed we might say “if we can get in lets go to the Nirvana restaurant, but if not see if you can get a reservation at Penultimate”.
In short, if after the initial ballot count no candidate has a majority of all votes cast, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and his/her supporters second choice votes are allocated to the other candidates. That is right, we will vote for successive choices as well. This reallocation process continues until the candidate most preferred by eliminated candidate’s voters wins a majority. Attendant questions include how open the Primaries are and whether Ranked Choice Voting is used in both the Primary and General elections.
Let me concede two things. First incumbents, Party big shots and those making a living from politics, will not like it. Second, the people who administer elections will claim it will be more burdensome. Although, just as computers can be used to destroy civility, they can be used to quickly parse election data and reallocate votes.Having asked for your indulgence for more words than usual, let me wrap this up. If, as a candidate I might need second choice votes, I am going to be less likely to enflame the other candidate’s supporters. And, if as a voter I need to make additional choices, I’m going to have to go beyond my presumptive choice—looking for things I like about the other candidates.
Finally, the election of leaders will always fall short of ideal. We are humans. But today we are on a destructive path with an urgent need to strengthen democracy.
Briefly on the War
Russia, unprovoked, is now learning it cannot win but can only destroy. “Fanaticism” according to George Santayana “consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim”
Is the civilized world incapable of organizing to stop wanton destruction? NATO needs to make demands of its own.
At the least protective corridors should be established; not as war zones but as the absence of war zones so that civilians can leave. Change the context, protect innocents!
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
Jim Franke says
“bomb credulous voters with hyper-emotional messages. Result: bloody and deeply rutted fields of combat with hardened and cynical survivors whose self-worth and future rely on rhetorical pillage.” Were you thinking about Dave Harden?
Rev Julia Hart says
Baby strollers carefully set and arranged…empty…to show the latest number of children killed by Russia. A theater holding hundreds of people of all ages, including babies, is shelled and destroyed. The Ukrainians had put those words around the building as a hedge against evil and death. It didn’t work. Evil had it’s way. Evil is succeeding.
I’m appalled that NATO does nothing except verbalize how bad Putin/Russia is. “Shame on Russia.” The President of the US declares Putin a war criminal. Nuremberg trials come to mind. Well, THAT will never happen. So it’s an empty declaration.
Other than ego, and rebuilding the USSR, why would Putin want a totally destroyed and people-less country? Just rubble, dead turf with no living people.
Our newscasters focus on gasoline crisis and how much more we’ll pay for everything. Even Ukraine is secondary to gasoline prices on some networks. We know it’s higher than it was, why does Jounalism sensationalize it? To make us feel worse?
Here’s a thought, how much is a gallon of gasoline to the taking of one human life? Let’s think about that when we fill up.
Have you seen the men tossing bodies in trenches, including children and babies? Some aren’t even wrapped. Just thrown in using a shower curtain. Will they remember the names of these victims? It brings to mind WWII and millions killed and “entrenched” for eternity.
I can’t believe the civilized world watches. Who’s next on the list? Poland? Bulgaria? Latvia? Oh aren’t we lucky there’s an ocean between us and them. But we know that doesn’t stop evil. What does?
What stops evil?
Let us pray….
Barbara Denton says
You obviously have no understanding of the situation. Prayer is our first recourse in stopping this evil. Our second recourse is turning our fossil fuels back on including the Keystone Pipeline, drilling in Anwar and fracking. The day Joe Biden cut off our energy supplies with his executive order (January 20, 2021) was the day Putin started planning his invasion. All his talk about NATO is disinformation for his people to try and justify the invasion. Our botched withdrawal from Afghanistan was the icing on the cake. When the number one power in the world starts being a weak sister, Dictators like Putin step in. He has Europe over a barrel due to fuel needs. We could have supplied all of Europe’s needs and Putin would not have had the money to fight this war. Putin ran propaganda ads in Europe about pollution which was non existent to get Europe to close down nuclear plants. They fell right into his hands. Now even Germany has seen the light but is hard pressed to get out from under the Russian fuel thumb. If you feel the need to look for evil look no further than the White House and the whole Biden family.
Michael Pullen says
Lincoln also wrote, in a letter to Joshua Speed,
“As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ We now practically read it ‘all men are created equal, except negroes.’ When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.’ When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”
The Know-Nothings were a nativist (anti-immigrant) political party in the 1850’s supporting policies very similar to today’s Republican Party. Lincoln, a founder of the Republican Party, would not recognize or support that party today.
I’m addition to the Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address, the following excerpt from a Lincoln speech in 1838 to a group in Springfield, Illinois is also pertinent:
“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
When Lincoln died, Edwin Stanton, standing beside his deathbed solemnly observed, “Now he belongs to the ages.”
And so he does.
Barbara Denton says
There is no comparison between the Know-Nothings and the Republican Party of today. We certainly have weak leadership who will not call out the Democrats for leading us to end into being a third world country. Republicans are not anti-immigrant, nor are they anti-Catholic or anti-immigrant. They are pro our Republican Democracy, pro-life, pro-fossil fuels, pro legal immigration and pro capitalist economy. Every Country has the right and the duty to close and defend its borders. The illegals flooding our Southern Borders are invaders. We seem to have forgotten this under this Progressive New Green Deal administration.
DEIRDRE LAMOTTE says
“Pro Republican Democracy” says it all: only republicans get to vote, correct? thank you!
For several decades, American bigots, Evangelicals and regressives have seen their influence wane and their
awfulness exposed and shamed. The gay movement, the Woman’s movement have come at what they perceive at their expense. Add to the mix a brilliant Black man elected to our highest office and the primal scream of
barbarian backlash against modernity began…and thus Trump. For four years we heard that vile man modeling awful, crude, bullying behavior. He de-shamed and empowered the very worst of America’s population. These people take patriotic pride in being as horrible as possible and they now demand it of their politicians.
The GOP is lining up to deliver. The Republicans with wealth? They are worse than the Billy Bobs because they laugh at what is happening while basking in their greed.
Republicans cling to what they can control, like woman’s bodies They love an autocrat to tell them what to do, and avoiding the imperative issues like climate destruction, racial inequality.
No wonder the GOP has been the the party of Putin. He even promotes our propaganda machine FOX in his state
run media. No coincidence there.
Barbara Denton says
The United States is a Republic. That is what I am trying to convey. Your racist description of Republicans is a disgrace and your racial hatred is shining through. Your lying descriptions or Trump supporters is exactly why you have no credibility in your statements. You cannot bully me into agreeing with your lies. Trump was not an autocrat. The climate changes everyday just as God designed it. We have some of the cleanest air of any Country in the world. Please point out the racial inequality you see. The GOP is not the party of Putin. Hillary paid for that lie and it has been debunked. Catch up with reality. The Democrats have been busy trying to destroy the United States but that will change in November. Hatred is a terrible thing. It eats up the person who is filled with it.