Everybody looks up to somebody. Like it or not, people always imitate the people they admire. Whether consciously or subconsciously, people who attract a great deal of attention and occupy public positions of influence naturally shape the behavior, attitude, and outlook of the people who look up to them. Whether for good or ill, the leaders of our country shape us and the way we do politics. The influence of their example, whether of virtue or of vice, has perhaps even more lasting power than the concrete policies they enact. The power of a good example can lead to national renewal; the power of a bad example can lead to the upheaval of society.
It is a shame, then, than none of our leaders within recent memory truly can be called virtuous people. To be sure, we have our favorites, the politicians whom our preferred brand of media praises, and our enemies, whom our favorite news source censures. But can any of our leaders truly be called “virtuous”? Can any of them be looked up to as exemplary human beings worthy of imitation? The very fact that the name “politician” has negative connotations is enough to drive home the point.
While there doubtless are countless factors that contribute to the lack of virtuous individuals in our government, this article will focus on three primary outstanding causes: an emphasis on structure over people, on style over substance, and love of partisan ideals over common patriotism.
1. Structure over People
Bureaucracy is something people love to hate but no one can do without. The administrative functions of government are very important to the day-to-day operations of the state. However, it becomes a problem when bureaucratic institutions and structures of power become more important to politics than the people occupying them. When this happens, government becomes nothing more than the largest for-profit business on the scene, and government workers become interested in nothing more than preserving their salaries and gaining more power.
This inhumane form of governance will naturally tend to promote people who are more skilled at gaming the system than those who actually care about doing a good job of serving the people. It also tends towards micromanagement and hyper-centralization, which are inherently destructive of local communities and families. An overly-bureaucratic government is fragile, and unlikely to last long in the face of the many challenges that any society is bound to face.
2. Style over Substance
The second outstanding cause of this lack of virtue is an emphasis on style over substance. In a democratic system, there is always a tendency to favor demagogues over competent individuals. To attract votes, you don’t necessarily need to be skilled at what you do; you just need to be good at advertising. That’s not to say voting is inherently bad; it just means that there’s a pitfall that needs to be avoided, a tendency that needs to be checked.
Without anything to check this tendency, public figures will tend to be better at blowing hot air and putting on a good show than at getting the job done and improving the lives of common citizens. A healthy, thriving society needs a strong sense of professionalism and honor in order for it to function well. Otherwise the individuals who occupy public office will almost inevitably be people of questionable morals and dubious qualifications.
3. Partisan Ideals
People are what they aspire to. If they are driven by aspirations toward self-sacrifice and serving their country, they will naturally become noble, virtuous people. If they aspire towards positions of power and popularity, they will become petty and vicious. What you value matters. Ideology matters.
It is thus a national tragedy that none of the major political ideologies of the present offer an honorable ideal worth aspiring to. Progressivism has degenerated into denying morality itself. Conservatism has degenerated into lust for revenge. Libertarianism is nothing more than a complicated outworking of “leave me alone and stay out of my business.” Which of these ideologies offers people something noble to aspire to? They all value their party more than their country, and reduce government from something self-sacrificial to something self-serving. Partisanship is one of the main characteristics of a petty person, and as long as partisanship prevails over citizenship, the individuals in our government will not exemplify anything worth aspiring to.
The day when Americans once again begin to have noble aspirations is the day America will be saved. The day when Americans forever despair of having noble aspirations is the day America is lost for good.
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As Solidarians move forward to renew American society, it is crucial for them to remember the importance of exemplary virtue. Raw power and money are not enough to run a functional society; people need to aspire toward something good. And that will only happen if their leaders are people of exceptional, exemplary virtue.
The American Solidarity Party must actively work to counter the three tendencies in American society that inhibit virtue in the public square. It must counter the emphasis on structure over people by continuing to emphasize communitarianism and subsidiarity. It must counter the emphasis on style over substance by constantly promoting a sense of professionalism and hard work over propaganda. Finally, it must counter the partisan spirit of our age with a continued commitment to its core value of solidarity over infighting. If the ASP does these things, it will truly be able to become a force for national renewal.