PLATTEVILLE, Feb. 11 — Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse (R–Nebraska) in the Wall Street Journal’s Free Expression newsletter Friday:
“To be part of America’s social fabric is to show up — whether you’re a football obsessive or tuning in mostly for the commercials. Nobody checks credentials at a Super Bowl party door. A six-pack and chips gets you in. Watch the game, enjoy the ads and complain about the halftime show. Fans and non-fans flock to the broadcast. In an era of fragmented media and hyper-personalization, that’s unusual. It speaks to something deep: Americans still want to be part of something together. For a long time now, we’ve been losing that instinct in our civic life.
“America runs on the First Amendment’s understanding that, because the human experience is messy and contested, we work through our disagreements with speech and argument. The whole point of America is that you can fight like hell on public policy or religion — with words — as long as you have the Constitution’s framework for ordered liberty.
“The system begins to crumble, though, when we convince ourselves that since our opponents are willing to upend the Constitution, we better do it before they can. By giving ourselves a permission structure to run roughshod over the safeguards for individual liberty, Americans on both left and right erode public trust. The answer isn’t mutual destruction; it’s the celebration of limits on government power. Those limits constrain all sides. We shouldn’t pretend that the differences between Republicans and Democrats will hasten the apocalypse.
“American politics work best when it accommodates more casual fans. Don’t mistake this for mushy middle indifference. American politics should be a place for citizens who care, show up, argue passionately about policy, but then keep on living life. Today, that approach is being crowded out by the perpetually enraged. There’s painfully little room left for those who believe that political life matters, but know that it isn’t the center of the universe. …
“America works only if we remember that government is the source neither of our rights nor the meaning of our lives. Our neighborhoods matter more than Washington.”
That last sentence is exactly the point I made to two young health care professionals with whom I struck up a conversation about my line of work, politics and such while I was out of action. Regardless of whether or not you voted for the current president or his predecessors, none of them know you or care about you beyond your vote and your campaign contribution, and you have no influence on them. What happens, in Platteville’s case, in the Municipal Building (in which two Common Council incumbents are unopposed) and in the school district (with three candidates for three Board of Education seats) affects your life much more than what happens in Washington and Madison. Your ability to influence politics disappears fast the farther away you are from this area. (Even if it’s unclear whether, say, county supervisors are listening to their constituents on such issues as wind and solar farms or data centers. County board members can be voted out of office much easier than U.S. senators.)
That may not assuage our Letter-writers or others who believe that the current president is the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler and the 77 million Americans who voted for him are fascists (however they define that overused word). No one, including those who have never voted for a Republican not named Dale Schultz, should be surprised that, observing the two previous Democratic presidencies, a Republican president might decide to engage in similar or greater executive overreach in the opposite direction, given that the current president won’t be running for reelection. (Or that a future Democratic president might double down on executive overreach in its favored direction.) Perhaps people weren’t paying attention at what government did during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Remember “Safer at Home”?)
It’s not at all surprising that politics has sunk to the level of the Facebook NFC North Trash Talk page. The more government does (including taxing), the higher the stakes in each election, therefore the more money that gets spent to win or keep a political office, and the louder and more hysterical the accompanying rhetoric becomes, even to the point of attempts to assassinate a former president and presidential candidate twice.
Republicans used to believe in limited government. The current presidential administration certainly cannot be accused of “limited government,” whether or not his supporters like what he’s doing. The next president and his or her supporters should make it clear what government should and should not do, and, unlike most politicians, mean and stick to what they say.
By the way: Sasse is dealing with terminal metastatic pancreatic cancer. Maybe a serious health condition focuses your mind on what’s actually important.
