Good Faith

Of all the things to repair in this country, good faith is the most important.

Good faith is the guiding principle lacking in so many of our complaints. 

The endless cries for bipartisanship, and the folks reminding us how politicians on opposite sides of the aisle used to always find ways to argue angrily and then go out for drinks together - they're really mourning the loss of good faith.

Good faith is the sincere desire to succeed together. 

I want to succeed this way, and you want to succeed that way, but we both plan to share the rewards of that success.

In other words, I want to do what I believe is best for everyone, and you want to do what is best for everyone.  We just have different ideas of how to do it.  No matter how much we disagree, we still want the other side to share in the rewards with us.

That is what has been missing.  And the lack of it has been rotting us from our core. 

Think about how prosecuting and defense attorneys are often friends.  In court they argue back and forth, but then walk out as respectful colleagues and maybe even friends. 

It's because their shared goal is justice.

If her goal is only to punish the defendant and his goal is just to set that defendant free, they cannot see eye to eye.  Their goals and purpose are at opposite ends.  How could they be respectful, let alone friends?

But if their shared goal is justice, then they are a team with each having an important role.  The prosecutor makes a good faith argument for why this person should be punished, and the defense makes a good faith effort to hold the prosecutor to high standards and make sure this defendant really is the one who needs to be punished, and if so, that the punishment is fair. 

In contrast, think back to when Sen. Mitch McConnell said the remaining months of President Obama's last term wouldn't be sufficient time to approve a new SCOTUS appointee.

Just a few months later, when Trump nominated someone to SCOTUS, McConnell rushed that person through in weeks (practically days).

It was a calculated lie.  But he didn't do it because "all politicians are bad".  And he didn't do it because he wanted the best justice on the bench.

He did it because he wanted to win.  He wanted only what was right for him and his side.

Someone who cared about the country as a whole would have done their best to work with Obama's nominee.  And if that nominee wasn't good enough, vote them down.  If the sincere efforts to vet and evaluate that person dragged on until the time ran out, so be it.

But that was never McConnell's plan.  He just wanted to hurt the other side to set up a win later.

We've foolishly started to think of politics as a war.  Relatively famous people have labeled politics as "bloodsport", or said that war is "the continuation of politics by other means".

This gives the mistaken idea that our fellow citizens are the enemy, and that only the tools and body count separate politics from war.

But politics is what brings us together.  At least, it should be. 

The ancient arts of rhetoric and oratory... creating and delivering passionate arguments... were meant to change minds; to bring as many people together as possible.

Not to destroy or alienate the other side, but to encourage and unite.

Imagine if the inspirational locker room halftime speeches in football games were meant for both teams at the same time.  Our country's success is not a zero sum game with one winner and one loser.  It's a game where we work together, and we all win or lose together. 

And sure, throughout history those passionate arguments backfired as often as not.  Ancient politicians got violent too, sometimes.  Humans are, after all, human. 

It's not perfect, and we don't need it to be. 

We simply need to see each other as what we are: huddled masses yearning to be free.  And only together can we truly be free. 

I will explore and defend this statement in other essays on this site.  For now, just be reminded of Lincoln's warning: a house divided against itself cannot stand. 

Not merely a house divided, but divided against itself.

We can argue until we're blue in the face about how to protect that house, but at the end of the day we both live in that house and we both must be sincere in our desire to protect it for each other. 

Anyone who seeks to protect it is my countryman. 

Anyone who seeks to burn it down is my enemy. 

Regardless of what side they claim to be on.