With Friends Like These?
By Mark Herring
“Man is, by nature,” Aristotle wrote, “a political animal.” He meant by this that we are by and large social creatures and want to be involved in communities, and thus, involved in politics. Ah, there’s the rub. Only the most antisocial among us will avoid politics at any cost. But it is that almost inherent and inescapable part of our nature that gets us into potential difficulties even among friends.
Addison, the great English essayist, may have captured this problem, especially, when he wrote about the London theatre and complained that even then opposing sides could not get along. He wrote, “…our politest assemblies are like boisterous Clubs [sic], that meet over a Glass of Wine, and before they have done, throw Bottles at one another’s Heads.”
While I would be last to argue that politics is anything other than a blood sport, as wags have called it. When Roosevelt and Willkie went at it, Wilkie was pelted with everything from rotten eggs, fruits, vegetables, rocks—even lightbulbs, an office chair and a wastebasket, the latter two thrown from an office window. But must we be this contentious inside our own party?
Addison went on to comment, sagely I think, when he wrote, “Instead of multiplying those desirable Opportunities where we might agree in Points that are indifferent, we let the Spirit of Contention into those very Methods that are not only foreign to it, but should in their Nature dispose us to be friends.”
Among Republicans across the Palmetto state, we are in agreement at least 85% of the time. Yes, that 15% can be maddeningly evident, but shouldn’t our vituperation and billingsgate be reserved for those with whom we rarely, if ever, agree? At times, we Republicans are so contentious with one another that it feels like we are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. With friends like these….
I am not arguing that we should not disagree among ourselves. That is inevitable . On the contrary, for example, Republicans who voted to keep our primaries open, or who voted, at least initially, not to save women’s sports, need to taken to the proverbial woodshed, to name two maddening examples. But this can be done privately. And we can, of course, seek candidates to replace them. But shouting them down, declaring them RINOS, excoriating them publicly, all of which is great fun, of course, is neither helpful nor effective.
As a Reagan Republican (but I’ve been voting Republican since 1972), I ascribe to Reagan’s Eleventh commandment. As you’ll recall, Reagan coined the familiar phrase in his 1966 campaign for governor of California: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” We have forgotten this admonishment—and I admit, I have not always followed it—but I think we need to get back to it. The truth about an issue is far more damaging (and effective) than disparaging a fellow Republican. We have been quick to hail someone as a RINO, or worse, when we should bedevil them with the truth of the matter. If everyone with whom we disagree is a RINO, no one is.
I want our party to be a cohesive unit. If anything can be learned from Democrats—and not much can—their willingness to vote unanimously on issues is one reason our goals fail. We circle the wagons only to shoot at each other. We antagonize one another to the extent that quite possibly some votes against Republican common sense may well be made in spite of the unnecessary disparagement against office-holding Republicans. If we disagree, can we vex those GOPers with the truth, instead of disparaging them with name-calling and mudslinging?
Of all the places to find Conservative sentiment brilliantly defended, I am in mind of recalling the words of Gustave Mahler. That’s right, the composer of some of the most beautiful classical music ever written. Mahler wrote, “Tradition [i.e. conservatism] is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” Isn’t that what we Republicans are all about? Rather than burning bridges on which fellow Republicans may be standing, let’s preserve that fire for the salvation of our culture and the harrowing of our liberal opponents.
