Mac-Coleman

31 October 2013 -

The Worthy Politician’s Blueprint:  Verities, Virtues, and Values 

How can we determine which politicians will best serve the people of the United States?  I offer the following suggestions for your consideration as we approach the 2014 national elections:

First, list the fundamental principles of life that you hold to be undeniably true.  These are verities.  Whether religious or secular, they should apply to political issues of the day.  For example, a fundamental principle of truth for me is that the Founders of the United States were unique and inspired men.  They lived in a world of rigid autocracy, political/religious melding, and slavery, which they openly defied when they codified the freedoms we take for granted today. 

Another verity, or principle of truth, is that the products of their rebellion, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, are the greatest expressions of political freedom and governance in the history of the world, breathtaking in their scope.  An accompanying fundamental principle of truth is that the United States of America is exceptional.  Its physical location in the world, its resources, its people, the idea that opportunity is based on individual freedom and not on genealogy — all were unique in the late 1700s and inspire us today. 

Finally, the government was formed to be limited in its scope and responsibilities.  Sovereignty rested with the people and the society we formed. 

These principles are among the applicable verities, the fundamentally true principles that should be the basis of political decision-making.    

       

The next step is to act on these principles.  Over time, we form and refine our character traits--our virtues—as we act upon principles we hold to be true.  For example, the virtue of tolerating others’ beliefs comes from maintaining that the rights in our founding documents are as applicable and necessary today as they were 237 years ago.  But how far should we go in tolerating the inflation of freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly in society?  One classic answer: you should be able to do anything you want as long as it doesn’t scare the horses.   What constitutes scaring the horses, i.e., eroding society’s cohesion and wearing away the nation’s sovereignty, is a compelling issue of our day.  I suggest that our elected officials do not need progressive principles to help decide these issues; they can apply the inspired, durable ideals laid out more than two centuries ago.   

Another key virtue is courage.  Courage to defend individual rights against those who would abridge them for their own purposes, and courage to defend the Constitution itself against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  The freedoms of religion, speech, assembly, bearing arms, and the inviolability of home and property, among others, are critical to a free society; it takes courage to defend them.  Elected officials should be courageous enough to risk their political lives to defend our rights, especially when other politicians want to abridge them in order to “help and protect us” in times of so-called crisis.  Pledging life, fortune, and sacred honor in the maintenance of such rights is as necessary today as it ever was. 

  

An accompanying national virtue is thrift, which results from preserving the principle of limited government and respect for other peoples’ property.  Most of what our government spends money on today is not the government’s business.  Nothing corrupts government officials more than perpetually centralizing power and spending other peoples’ money.   Property rights were sacred to our Founders; they are sacred to me.   Our elected officials should spend our money judiciously and only on those programs set forth in the Constitution.  Other social spending should rest on us and on private organizations.

   

Finally, our values are what we are willing to pay for—what we spend time, money, and effort to acquire.  They are the visible results of what we believe and how we act.  If an elected official’s values are to spend money, raise taxes, and go into debt in the name of every cause du jour, then I know his standards are not in line with the virtue of thrift.  I know that his fundamental views of truth bear little resemblance to those of our nation’s Founders.   And there is no reason to believe he is courageous if he does not stand against the continuing hemorrhage of our national capital.

Verities at one’s foundation.  Virtues in one’s character.  Appropriate values for one’s efforts.  When our elected officials show themselves that clearly, you will see the rarest virtue in politics:  trustworthiness.  What is that worth?  “…a merchant man seeking goodly pearls:  Who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”  (Matthew 13: 45, 46).  Trustworthiness is worth that much.