5 Questions

Gustav Niebuhr asks several good questions of candidates, today, that caught my eye.

In Assessing Morality, I'll Start with 5 Questions

He writes:

"Based on the experience of having lived through the past seven years, I think I can boil down to five the questions I consider important in trying to assess a presidential candidate's moral grounding. Sure, these overlap with broad religious principles, but they work from a secular standpoint, as well.

'First, are you able to admit a mistake and, as a chief executive, take responsibility for it and work humbly to undo any damage resulting from it?

Second, will you listen to others and give thoughtful weight to reasonable arguments with which you may be inclined to disagree?

Third, will you show sufficient curiosity about the world to believe that you can learn from and respond with care to changing global circumstances that affect your fellow citizens?

Fourth, will you demonstrate enough respect to other human beings to be truthful with them, even if that costs you politically?

And finally, will you state categorically that you will not start a war?'"

I responded thusly:

"All of those sound reasonable, though the fourth question, and all of them, really, will, realistically, depend our own behavior as citizens, journalists, colleauges, activists, scholars, and others involved in the democratic process. If we continue with our leveraging, strong-arming, tough-guy ways, we can expect that last answer to be the same as it is ever been: "Yes," when asked the question, and "No, not really" when leaders face real challenges. It's the most consistent and ridiculous exercise we engage in as an electorate: let our politicians have it when they tell the truth and then sit around complaining that they never tell the truth. The truth is that I can't think of a real exception to that much more realistic rule of life and I have no confidence that we will be facing it soon and even less confidence that things will get significantly better until we do.

On the fifth question, I would vote against any candidate who answered that question yes. What this country needs is a public debate and discussion about when and how military action is engaged. Wars and military action should be avoided as much as possible. But they are necessary for purposes of defending ourselves and defending others when that defense is welcomed and warranted. Iraq is a complicated case where defense was warranted but not completely welcomed. And we must think and engage seriously in the future about how we might support or defend people, like the Iraqi people, who need it but who do not trust us.

There are ways to do that, I think, that can respect the self-determination of the Iraqi people. Peaceful means should be preferred, when possible. But military means may be necessary when peaceful means cannot realistically achieve genuinely democratic ends. Iraq was likely a case of a country where peaceful efforts to introduce democracy were not likely to work absent some kind of internal revolution, at which point, the Iraqis would likely need the overwhelming force of a country like America or other countries in the West, to support them in order to avoid being slaughtered. But we did not ask them if they wanted our help. And many of them were not on board with our effort to liberate them. And we are dealing with the consequences, as we did in Vietnam, for that decision.

Having said that, neither committing to never starting a war nor leaving the chaotic mess that we helped create in Iraq are adequate answers to that original mistake. A full and substantive discussion and debate that assumes good faith about this matter of policy and all matters of policy need to take place so we can discuss them in their totality.

But we are a lazy and cynical lot, too often, who will settle for politicians solving such problems for us, even if they clearly do not have the answers we seek, and avoiding those discussions, no matter how critical, in this case, life-and-death, they might be, and settling for this cynical election process and a larger democratic debate and discussion that is woefully lacking in substantial disagreement and discussion that assumes good faith of those we disagree with because so many people have decided that either they have more answers than they really do or that those they disagree with cannot possibly offer more to their understanding of the world and policy than they really do.

That is our most serious failing and the most serious failing on the part of candidates and failing of integrity in our democracy.

If I were asking the candidates similar questions, I might ask, "Do you take your job and all matters of policy seriously enough that you will lead, initiate, engage, follow, listen to, learn from, and otherwise improve democratic life in America with the most substantive discussions and debates about American and international political life possible? And will you take those discussions and debates more seriously than your job, your ego, your next election, your friends in Washington, or how much it flatters or upsets those who want life to be simpler than it is or can be?"

"Will you lead America in the direction that it and those near power in Washington so often resists being led - by engaging it in serious, rigorous, thoughtful, good faith reflections and discussions about policy with others who care about such matters, even when people get bored of it, overwhelmed by the complexity of the problems we face and the need to engage that complexity, when they call for government to solve more problems than it can really solve, and even when doing so would mean challenging America and the world to fix the godawful mess that is democratic politics in absence of a more serious, respectful, civil, thoughtful substance and respect for liberal values at its core and front and center in its discussions?"

"And after all of that, will you learn to have a sense of humor about what a incredibly dysfunctional lot we are - human beings, in general, and the political class, in particular - and perhaps lead and teach by example that sense of humor about ourselves so that we can, perhaps, learn some humility about our place in the world and how seriously many if not most of our opinions should be taken, by ourselves, nevertheless by others? Could you maybe be a real human being as well as a leader, no matter the impossible expectations and pressures from the American electorate, and teach us how to be at ease with being real human beings, for all of our failings, ourselves, so we are not constantly scurrying around using politics to prove just how genius, superhuman, moral-beyond-belief, righteous members of the human race we are and that we expect you to be? Could you maybe teach us to look at ourselves and one another and the world more honestly and not always defending ourselves and our foolish notions and unrealistic outlooks on ourselves and one another?"

That's a lot to ask of a President. But that's what we need. From someone, if not the President.

Because no matter what we do, this process is going to go on being a seriously tragic, perplexing, and entertaining little mess until we can face up to our failures in that process and those in our lives which make American and democratic politics so amusing and sad all at the same time.

I don't know if one President or Presidential candidate can fix that. All I know is that it won't be fixed until those questions get addressed, in our lives as much as in our elections. And I'd rather those problems be fixed than be so entertained."