Musings on Promoting the Common Good Over Polarized Partisan Politics

By Rudy Barnes, Jr.

When President Biden stepped aside to allow the Democratic Party to choose a new Presidential nominee, he opened the door to ending the evil of polarized partisan politics.  It’s probably safe to assume that Kamala Harris will be the Democratic nominee, and she can appeal to most Americans who are political moderates with no strong partisan preference.

Even if Harris doesn’t win, she will lead the loyal opposition in Congress, and can set the stage for America’s political future.  The question is what kind of image will the media create for Harris by November 5?  As a nonpartisan OWG (old white guy) who has voted for candidates from both parties over the years, I believe that this year voters can elect a moderate President. 

For those who are skeptical of a moderate coming out of California, remember Ronald Reagan.  A conservative doesn’t have to be a nasty partisan to be elected President.  This year voters need to ignore partisan rhetoric and lies and restore honesty and decency in their politics. Political unity is nonpartisan.  Advocating unity in partisan politics is a form of deceit.

Early polls show Harris may be doing better against Trump than Biden, but it’s too early to make predictions.  We can expect that Trump and Vance will disparage Harris with partisan hatred and lies.  In 2021 J. D. Vance asserted the “Democratic Party is controlled by people without children,” and called Harris a “childless cat lady in the Democratic Party.”

America should not allow nasty partisan rhetoric, hatred and lies to corrupt what’s left of decency and honesty in American democracy.  Voters will continue to determine the future of its democracy, correcting misplaced partisan loyalty created by polarized partisan politics by putting the common good ahead of party loyalty to restore the health of our sick democracy.

This isn’t the first time that the common good has been compromised by polarized partisan politics.  The current iteration of partisan hatred began with Trump’s campaign in 2016, but America has seen other failures of its democracy based on major issues like slavery or the economy.  But each time America regained its political balance, as I expect it will again this time.

What makes partisan polarization especially problematic is when it’s based on a conflict between unprincipled personalities rather than on major political issues.  Trump’s demagoguery opposes libertarian democracy itself, much like Netanyahu has promoted nationalist Zionism that has violated international law, freedom, and democracy to promote his political power.

Biden had a long and otherwise honorable political career before he supported Netanyahu’s war crimes that have killed more than 39,000 Palestinian noncombatants in Gaza in violation of international humanitarian law.  Those war crimes have isolated Israel from other nations, as evidenced by the muted response of Congress to Netanyahu’s recent visit to the U.S.  Whoever becomes the Democratic nominee for President should remember that.

Notes:

On five faith facts about Kamala Harris’ diverse interfaith background, see     https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/11/07/five-faith-facts-about-biden-vp-kamala-harris?utm.

On sexist and disparaging comments made by JD Vance against Kamala Harris going virile again, see Vance’s 2021 comments on “childless cat ladies’ like Kamala Harris going viral again. Vance said, Look at Kamala Harris.  The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kamala-harris-jd-vance-childless-cat-lady-b2584852.html.

On J. D. Vance’s Strange Politics of Family. The Vice-Presidential candidate’s memoir reveals the roots of his ideas about parents, children, and who should run the country.

J. D. Vance dedicates his best-selling 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” to his grandparents, whom he calls Mamaw and Papaw. His grandmother was just thirteen years old when she became pregnant by her soon-to-be husband, who was sixteen, and they moved to Middletown, Ohio, to start their troubled adult lives. Vance emphasizes that the frequent violence between his Mamaw and Papaw was preferable to the similar chaos that characterized his childhood with his mother. One difference: his grandparents stayed married. That commitment, Jessica Winter shows, is the essence of Vance’s political platform, in which he laments the “childless left” [note that Jesus was “childless”], and posits that universal day care is a kind of class warfare “against normal people,” and opposes abortion. For the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, a woman’s place is at home, having babies with her husband, no matter how fallible that man may be. “It is clear, on a primal, emotional level, why Vance sees this as the better deal than what he got,” Winter notes. “But what results is a blinkered, grotesquely narcissistic vision of the social contract—an identity politics of one grown child.” See https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/j-d-vances-sad-strange-politics-of-family?utm_

Musings on a Fatally Corrupted American Democracy

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., July 19, 2024

This commentary will be short, but not sweet.

I’m nonpartisan in my politics, and terribly disappointed with both parties.  I can’t relate to the GOP carnival orchestrated by Donald Trump in Milwaukee, or to the moribund Democratic party that will hold their convention on August 19 in Chicago.  America’s two-party democracy has become a disgrace to the  Founding Fathers who drafted our Constitution in 1789.

Since 2014 I have opined on the relationship between religion, standards of political legitimacy and politics with commentaries posted at https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/ and on Facebook.  Since then things have gone from bad to worse, confirming Winston Churchill’s opinion that democracy is the worst form of government--except for all the others.

That’s best explained by the depravity of human nature, and history has proven the infallibility of that universal principle.  If a democracy could be expected to promote the common good, as taught by Jesus in the greatest commandment,  then we could hope that an altruistic and universal religion could lead us to peace and justice for all; but that appears beyond hope.

Well, we have until the election on November 5 to hope for a political miracle.

Blessings and Peace, Rudy 

Musings on How Polarized Parties Promote Demagoguery in America

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., July 13, 2024

Trump and Biden and Republican and Democratic party leaders are complicit in using partisan strategies to promote demagoguery in America’s polarized 2-party democracy.  It takes two to tango, and either Trump or Biden or their party leaders could end the current political farce of American democracy with an open convention, but that’s not likely to happen.

America is witnessing an exercise of political narcissism in both parties.  It’s the love of power that keeps Trump and Biden and their partisan leaders in line to preserve their power and oppose the nonpartisan common good.  It’s increasingly obvious that the current polarized political regimes in Washington aren’t willing to risk losing their partisan power.

No longer can one party blame the other for America’s moral and political failures.  Trump may be nastier and more dishonest than Biden, but both are afflicted with a love of political power that blinds them to promoting the common good.  Party loyalty has become an overriding priority of leaders in both parties, and that needs to change.

But it’s not likely that either party will sacrifice its traditional partisan loyalties to promote the common good, and that’s where party priorities originate their democratic principles.  To promote the common good the two-party duopoly will have to expand its existing constituencies to include political moderates, and there is no evidence that will happen. 

American democracy may have to die and be born again--like the phoenix in Greek mythology, or being born again in Christianity.  That could happen with an open convention for Republicans or Democrats in which the current nominee would allow the convention to choose the party’s nominee, providing the best chance of defining the common, or nonpartisan, good.

An open convention would have unpredictable results, and likely be opposed by the partisan power structure.  The alternative is to go forward with Trump and Biden and a continuation of partisan polarization that will likely lead to demagoguery, with the extremes of partisan politics defining America’s political objectives for the foreseeable future.

For the Democratic Party to have the credibility to run the government of the United States, or to be the “loyal opposition”, it must not allow its leaders to behave like Trump and demand that personal loyalty to the party leader is more important to the welfare of the nation than the nonpartisan public will that expresses the common good. 

Diversity can be the strength of a pluralistic democracy unless it devolves into polarized partisan politics that provide a path to demagoguery.  With party conventions just months away, both Trump and Biden leave real doubt whether either can subordinate their self-centered political interests to promoting the common good.  For Biden and the Democratic Party, an open convention could remedy the credibility problem.   

Notes:

Despite opposition within his party to his nomination, Biden has repeatedly ignored requests to step aside and allow an open convention to consider an alternative Democratic nominee for President.  Biden’s many years in office seem to have blinded him to his failure to recognize his political limitations.  Graeme Wood of the Atlantic has asserted that to trust Biden is no longer a credible option, and advocated that Biden should release the delegates in an open convention.  

“Senility is part of the human condition, but dignity is usually a choice. I pity Joe Biden for having to make what may be the most humiliating decision in presidential history. The questions Are you senile yet? Are you sure? have no dignified answer—which is why Biden should consider an option midway between resignation and denial, and persist in a way that is not, to my knowledge, being considered. Having harvested enough delegates for the nomination, he now has sole authority to release them and let them choose another nominee at or before the Democratic National Convention in August. To release them and glide toward retirement would invite speculation about whether being unfit to run for president means he is also unfit to serve as president for the rest of his term. Failure to release them would feel a lot like Biden is holding the party hostage, and forcing its members to defend his debility with such preposterous vigor that no one will believe anything they say ever again. The dignity-preserving option is to release the delegates and run in an open convention. Asking the country to trust him is no longer a credible option. But inviting delegates to witness his continued vigor and competence facing an open convention is a possible path forward, and the likeliest to end in another Biden term. See https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/biden-release-delegates-dnc-option/678925/.

At a press conference Thursday evening Biden told reporters he’s committed to finishing the job he started. “‘We’ve got more to do. We’ve got to finish the job.’  “The moment of defiance comes as Democrats are overwhelmingly despondent about his candidacy. A disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump on June 27 sparked plenty of second guesses about their presumptive candidate’s odds to hold the White House. Ignoring the Democrats who have publicly urged Biden to step aside, Biden said he has what it takes to continue the job for a second term. As he has in the past, he blamed aides for his own stumbles. ‘I love my staff, but they add things. They add things all the time. I’m catching hell from my wife. Anyway,’ he said, trailing off yet again. Asked if he would drop out of the race if his staff showed him polling that Vice President Kamala Harris could defeat Trump, Biden said “no,” that wouldn’t be enough. “Unless they came back and said there’s no way you can win. No one’s saying that.  Biden’s showing was at times halting, often stopping to clear his throat and speaking through a hoarse voice. He boasted about a new economic report that showed a strengthening domestic economy. But it was clear he understood the stakes and was on a tight leash. “I’ve been given a list of people to call on here,” Biden said. Answering his first question, Biden messed up the name of his own understudy, as he tried to speak on Harris’ ability to swap onto the ticket as a replacement. “I would not have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President if I didn’t think she was qualified to be President.” The gaffe came just hours after Biden drew gasps from the room of diplomats for mistakenly calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. See Joe Biden Meets the Press, Fails to Quiet Worries at  https://time.com/6997640/joe-biden-press-conference-2/?utm_.

A Requiem for American Democracy from Both Political Parties

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., July 4, 2024

Democrats have long asserted that the election of Donald Trump would end American democracy.  Now, after the awful performance of President Biden in the June 6 debate, many Democrats (60% in the latest polls) are saying that Biden should step aside and allow another Democrat to be their party’s Presidential nominee and standard bearer.

It’s true that on June 6 Donald Trump repeated his political lies and misrepresentations, and his recent conviction of a felony should have been enough to give Biden the political advantage, but Biden’s poor debate performance before a highly publicized national audience indicated that he was unsuited for reelection.

Biden’s refusal to acknowledge his failure in the debate and consider stepping aside to allow another Democratic nominee to run, coupled with his family’s support and a core group of Democrats who consider it virtuous that Biden is defiant and refuses to step down, makes both parties complicit in pronouncing a death sentence on American democracy. 

I’m nonpartisan, and I supported Biden before his defiant commitment to continue his candidacy after demonstrating confusion and listlessness in the debate.  Now I consider both Trump and Biden unsuited to be President.  Like Trump, Biden has put retaining his political power over providing for the common good and supporting the Constitution.

Despite their contrasting political personalities, Trump and Biden have demonstrated a moral equivalence that should deny them both political success.  If Trump and Biden are the only choices for President, I’m not likely to vote  for either, and I won’t be alone; and that may be the best way for voters to reform America’s corrupt two-party duopoly.

In their zeal to promote partisan objectives, Republicans and Democrats have ignored providing for the common good.  It’s a moral imperative of the greatest commandment to love God and all of our neighbors as we love ourselves, including those of other races, religions and political parties; and it’s a common word of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.

Party loyalty grounded in racism has become the mortal enemy of America’s democracy.  Pluralistic democracies cannot survive without altruistic values that can reconcile racial and religious differences.  Israel is an example of how corrosive religious differences can produce hatred and violence that precludes the political reconciliation needed in pluralistic democracies.

It may be too soon to announce a requiem for American democracy, but if there are no major political changes before November that indicate a moral change in America’s two-party duopoly that reduces partisan polarization, it will probably be too late.  Biden’s defiance is pure vanity, and both political parties are responsible for the crisis in American democracy.         

Notes:

President Biden’s shaky, halting debate performance has Democrats talking about replacing him on the ticket. A raspy-voiced President Biden struggled to deliver his lines and counter former President Donald J. Trump during the debate on Thursday. 

 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/us/politics/biden-debate-democrats.html.  See also, Democrats panic over Biden’s debate performance, doubt his future. The consternation over his halting performance encompassed both the halls of Congress and the living rooms of Democratic stalwarts. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/28/presidential-debate-reactions-biden/?utm.

As Biden digs in, some top Democrats want him out of the race this week, see https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/politics/biden-debate-performance-democrats/index.html.

Musings on Morality as a Critical Component of Democracy, but as the Enemy of Peace

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., June 29, 2024

Stephen Walt has asserted that morality is the enemy of peace.  By way of contrast, Thomas Jefferson considered the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code ever designed by man.”  It’s summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves, and was taken from the Hebrew Bible, taught by Jesus and accepted by Muslim scholars as a common word of faith.  It’s a moral imperative for Jews, Christians and Muslims to be reconciled as children of God.

Reconciliation is a moral imperative that doesn’t require consensus on contentious political issues--only a commitment to minimize issues of race and religion that polarize politics.  Race and interfaith differences exacerbated by nationalism have polarized politics and stifled religious and political reconciliation in both the U.S. and Israel more so than other moral issues.

Morality in politics comes in many forms, with some moral standards more fundamental to peace than others.  Religious and political leaders often fail to acknowledge the importance of racial and political reconciliation as moral priorities that can prevent political polarization and violence.  Hatred, not the moral imperative of reconciliation, is the primary enemy of peace.

Mysticism and morality are both the province of faith.  Mysticism is about belief in God, while morality is about how we relate to each other.  Exclusivist beliefs that limit salvation to a specific religion can create religious hatred and polarize politics.  Jesus was a Jew who never favored any one religion--not even his own--over others.  The moral priority of religion and politics should be to promote reconciliation, not to condemn morality as the enemy of peace.

Stephen Walt noted that “overzealousness, rigidity and excessive moralizing in religion can be obstacles to finding effective solutions to difficult international issues.”  That may be true, but religious reconciliation has always helped resolve difficult issues.  There are many moral issues between people of different faiths that have defied resolution, but that doesn’t implicate morality as the enemy of peace.

Democracy and self-determination are valid moral principles that were applied in the American War of Independence, the Civil War, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.  They led to different results with slavery a major factor in the  U.S.  Morality continues to be a major factor in those political contests and in both the Ukraine/Russia war and the Israel Hamas war.

The Civil War In America reflected the failure of the White Christian church to condemn the immorality of slavery and racism, until Dr. Martin Luther King initiated the civil rights movement in the mid-20th century.  A similar split between Jews and Muslims has continued to lead to religious wars in the Middle East.  

Will Christians, Jews and Muslims ever accept the moral imperative to be reconciled as children of God in pluralistic democracies? 

Notes:    

On Stephen Walt’s article on Morality as the enemy of Peace, see https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/06/13/gaza-ukraine-ceasefire-war-peace-morality/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm.

  

On Thomas Jefferson’s belief that the moral teachings of Jesus were the most sublime moral code ever designed by man, see https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xWM4o586mCu6QoL69XAhkxfjjh6daTnNdnGnkJ05cZ8/edit.

On Musings on the relevance of the morality of Jefferson’s Jesus in the 21st Century, see https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/05/musings-on-relevance-of-jeffersons.html.

On Civil Religion, Christian Nationalism, and Cancel Culture in the U.S. and Russia, see  https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/03/LP (March 26, 2022).

Jon Meacham described the critical relationship between democracy and morality at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVnbFlEWSYI (thanks to Sid Gates; start watching a 1:09). 

An afterword for my readers:  Like you, I’m worn down by the heat.  I apologize ahead of time for the lack of regular weekly commentaries for the rest of the summer.  Stay cool, if you can.

Rudy    

 Musings on the Hope for a Second Coming of a Messiah in Israel

     By Rudy Barnes, Jr., June 22, 2024

I agree entirely with Thomas L. Friedman’s commentary in the NY Times on June 18.  The caption to my commentary is only a hopeful hint of what could happen in Israel.  Over 2,000 years ago Jesus appeared in that troubled Roman backwater with God’s promise of peace, but the Christian religion blew the opportunity to get it right.  Maybe we’ll get it right this time around.

God’s will and democracy should be compatible, but looking at Israel, Russia and America today you wouldn’t know it.  The teachings of Jesus on reconciliation and peace are summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors, including those of other races and religions, as we love ourselves; but the lust for power has corrupted God’s love.

The greatest commandment is taken from the Hebrew Bible, and considered a common word of faith by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, but it has not been uniformly promoted by those Abrahamic religions.  That’s evident in most synagogues, churches and mosques in Israel, which is supposedly a democracy that includes both Jews and Muslims.         

Friedman has asserted that Netanyahu has set Israel on a suicide course of “reckless economic, military and moral overstretch--committing seven million Jews to control more than seven million Palestinians. Friedman agrees with former prime minister Ehud Barak, that “Israel faces the most serious and dangerous crisis in the country’s history.”  

“Every American should worry about the prospect of a war that would drag the U.S. into a Middle East War to help Netanyahu’s IDF destroy Palestinians.  While it would be insane for Israel and America, It would be a Russian, Chinese, and Iranian dream come true.”  It would give divine sanction to continuing oppression in Israel.

Friedman admits that “If the war only buys Israel another long timeout with Hamas, maybe that’s all that’s possible.  Up to now the real history of the Jews and Palestinians going back to the early 20th century has been: war, timeout, war, timeout, war, timeout, etc.”  If the human depravity of the Middle East is a prelude to its future, we’ll have to live with it longer. 

Friedman should have noted that in the 1st century, Jesus set a precedent for lasting peace and reconciliation in the Middle East with the greatest commandment as a common word of faith.  Some sort of reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians is essential to world peace.  Friedman said, ”As for now, Israel needs to get the hell out of Gaza and back into a timeout.”

Notes:

See Friedman, American Leaders Should Stop Debasing Themselves on Israel, at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/18/opinion/netanyahu-gaza-congress.html.  

The following commentaries were written several years ago on The Greatest Commandment as a Common Word of Faith.  See http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/the-greatest-commandment-common-word-of.html; See also, Love over Law: A Principle at the Heart of Legitimacy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/love-over-law-principle-at-heart-of.html; also, Who Is My Neighbor? See http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/who-is-my-neighbor.html; also The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/the-politics-of-loving-our-neighbors-as.html; also Musings on a Common Word of Faith and Politics for Christians and Muslims at 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/10/musings-on-common-word-of-faith-and.html and 

Musings on Diversity in Democracy: Who Are Our Neighbors? See 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/07/musings-on-diversity-in-democracy-who.html.

See also, Love over Law: A Principle at the Heart of Legitimacy at 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/love-over-law-principle-at-heart-of.html; see also 

Who Is My Neighbor? At http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/who-is-my-neighbor.html; also, The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/the-politics-of-loving-our-neighbors-as.html, and 

Altruism: The Missing Ingredient in American Christianity and Democracy at 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/03/altruism-missing-ingredient-in-american.html; and Musings on a Common Word of Faith and Politics for Christians and Muslims at 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/10/musings-on-common-word-of-faith-and.html, and Musings on Diversity in Democracy: Who Are Our Neighbors? 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/07/musings-on-diversity-in-democracy-who.html.