I shared a glass of wine recently with a neighbor and friend who’s a theologian and an author, a man of very remarkable insights. We share concerns about the politics of 2016, and in our conversation he reminded me about what’s missing in this year of The Donald Trump Campaign. What’s missing, so far, is any articulated reverence for what I would call ordinary moral conduct.
I don’t know a lot about Donald Trump’s thought processes, but what I do know suggests that he has a loose hold on the truth and a remarkably flexible approach to the commitments he has made (whether fiscal or matrimonial). He seems evangelical about his own self-importance, and quite content to attack persons who don’t share his adherence to greed or admiration for himself. And apparently he’s quite good at manipulating others for his own advancement.
There was a time in our political life when this collection of attributes would have called forth the voices of our national leadership in a chorus of condemnation. This year we get muted whimpering, followed by the sound of someone kissing butt.
Good Lord, when I became a young man in the 1960s people like William Sloane Coffin raged out fiercely about right and wrong. The people I admired most, including the friend with whom I shared some wine, were folks who went to Selma, or registered voters in the South, and fought for civil rights. Their voices were strong, and truthful, and courageous. Now what?
Our Granite State has always been a place that valued people of strong moral convictions and proven willingness to fight for what’s right. Think of governors Winant and Bass, and Marilia Ricker, who fought for her right to be equal, and the Cornishman George Rublee, who struggled to save the Jews of Europe in the 1930s. They all had an understanding of right and wrong, and a connection to the principle of greater good. Can it be that we will now forget their determination to do what’s right and true, and turn to someone who, by telling lies and spreading false promises, can make the impossible and malicious seem irresistible?
I sure hope not.
(Peter Hoe Burling of Cornish was Democratic leader of the N.H. House, a state senator and a DNC member.)