Originally published in the Deseret News.
“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” — Abraham Lincoln
The Republican Party calls itself the party of Lincoln. The GOP could learn a lot from Lincoln right now.
Lincoln governed during a time of extraordinary division. By the time he delivered his first inaugural address, seven states had already seceded from the union. He begged his countrymen to be touched by the better angels of their nature. He said, “We are not enemies, but friends.” Lincoln possessed civic grace.
Today, the Republican Party could use a little civic grace. The party reeks with division and incivility. What should be a grand discussion about ideas and the right vision for America instead resembles a kindergarten playground conversation of “My dad is bigger than your dad.” Even worse, conservative principles like limited government and free enterprise are lost in the rhetoric of building walls and inciting trade wars. I find myself yearning for something better.
At the center of my discontent is the front-runner candidate who seems to be speaking to a large faction of the Republican Party, but not to me. Donald Trump does not share my values, nor do I think he has the temperament to serve as the leader of the free world. Bullies aren’t leaders. His supporters say he will govern differently than he campaigns. I’m skeptical.
Many in my party seem desensitized to his statements. I am not. Mexicans are not rapists, torture is not okay, Muslims should not be banned from entering our country, and it’s not okay to give a pass to the Ku Klux Klan. I revere POWs, women, and the disabled. I do not praise the crackdown in Tiananmen Square because it showed strength.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has endorsed Trump, declared this week that a movement has begun. Maybe so, and there is something to be said for Trump’s straight talk and decisiveness. The paralysis in Washington, D.C., deserves a kick in the rear. Many Republicans messed in their nest by not accomplishing anything and essentially being the party of “no.”
The problem is ideas, character and temperament still matter. We need a candidate who had what Lincoln had: civic grace.
“Civic grace” describes both the need for more propriety and civility in the public square and the need to govern from an honorable place. It’s difficult to define, but easy to feel and closely resembles patriotism. It’s the reverent feeling you have when you visit a military cemetery. It’s the tear in the eye of an Olympic athlete on the medal stand when the Star Spangled Banner is played. It’s the unity of purpose felt after 9/11. It’s the promise of America so beautifully scripted on the Statue of Liberty — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free … I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Grace is the light in this lamp. It’s a light Americans should share abundantly with the world.
A few years ago I read a damning observation penned on The New York Times comment page in response to a column written by Thomas Friedman. It concerned the evolution of America. The writer said our evolution from Lewis and Clark to Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam was almost complete. He said, “We used to embrace challenges, endure privation, throttle our fear and strike out into the (unknown) wilderness. In this mode we rallied to span the continent with railroads, construct a national highway system, defeated monstrous dictators, cured polio and landed men on the moon.” He then lamented about our current condition and concluded, “So much for the pioneering spirit that made us (once) the greatest nation on earth.”
Making America great again needs to be more than a slogan. In challenging times people prey upon anger, fear and distrust. My sense of civic grace tells me we need something better. We need to find our better angels and we need to do it fast.