I love my country, but I am none too fond of our government. It seems that on the 250th anniversary of our nation politicians could see their way towards getting along so that they could get something positive done for the people they serve. Their biggest problem seems to be making sure that only true believers are running the show. Of course, the people who decide who are the true believers are the self-appointed truest believers, which raises suspicions in my mind. The reason they want only true believers elected is so that they can get something done. What that might be is kind of vague, but I think it is mostly making sure that only true believers can vote, and that they will then, of course, elect only true believers who will then continue to get nothing done.
You know, this is only my opinion, but I think it’s kind of important to solve problems that don’t have anything to do with political parties, like inflation, health care, you know, the basic inconveniences of life that regular people have to deal with. Politicians can have all the best beliefs of what is right or wrong, but philosophies don’t put bread on the table or cure diseases. Speaking of which, the U.S. military is now rescinding a voluntary flu vaccination policy for recruits because they have found that there is a lot of flu going around in military barracks. They felt it was too “woke” to require flu shots, but that was before the top brass woke up to the fact that sick soldiers can’t fight as well as healthy ones. If they ever read any history, they would have found out that General Washington (who had hair at least as good-looking as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s) required his soldiers to get smallpox vaccinations in 1777. Just sayin’.
But back to purity, which as far as I am concerned is the enemy of democracy. The Democratic Socialists in New York City have managed to defeat a bunch of just-plain Democratic representatives. As a result of those victories, they are now convinced that the entire USA is ready for their brand of politics. People tend to believe that the little part of the world that they live in reflects that bigger part of the world that they don’t live in. They are generally wrong, but the victors in New York will now try to move the entire Democratic Party to their kind of purity. That’s a good way to increase Democrats’ minority status which the Republicans will be happy to help them with.
The Republicans are engaged in the same kind of purity contests of their own. Have fun, I might say, but political party infighting doesn’t do anything for the people they represent. If the goal of purists is to have undiluted power, seeking purity is a poor way to achieve it. Unless, of course, you can gerrymander political jurisdictions to reflect the purity boundaries. Trust me, it doesn’t need to be that complicated.
Me, I believe that elected officials should be representative of their particular districts, which means that they will differ in beliefs from elected officials in other places. That means political parties need to be tolerant of people who hold slightly different beliefs than the party, as long as they are in general agreement with party’s principles. Government is run by the political party that has the most members in whatever government they are in. To do that, politicians need to be more flexible in their ideologies.
The purpose of political parties is to gain power, but they seem to see that power as an end in itself. We have government, as Lincoln said, “to do for the people that which they cannot do by themselves alone” (that’s not the direct quote). Political parties need to remember that they are representatives of all the people and that the people who did not vote for them are not their enemies but just regular folks trying to get along.
Jim Elliott served sixteen years in the Montana Legislature as a state representative and state senator. He lives on his ranch in Trout Creek.