Target Practice: Politics and Public Service

When I taught middle school in the late 1990's, I became aware of the pervasive cynicism which flourishes in the minds of adolescents. And today I am seeing the same mentality in grown-ups, especially in reference to the public figures in American life.

I am consistently amazed that anyone with an ounce of self-respect enters the public arena in elective politics or government service any more. It's not that political office and non-elective jobs in the government are such an evil profession, right the contrary. It's just that Americans have become so cynical, hyper-critical and self-righteous about anyone who undertakes public service. The lone exception is military service, which retains a kind of romantic allure amid the tragic and brutal war we are now waging against civilian combatants. This renewed respect for the military community sounds almost like the US citizenry is attempting to atone for an unpaid debt of gratitude owed to Vietnam era veterans, men and women who bore the brunt of another failed foreign policy decision which led us to a war we should not have fought. As a Vietnam veteran, I rejoice that my countrymen are appreciative of soldiers today--better late than never. However, the best way to honor those who serve is by disengaging from conflicts which are none of our business and which cannot be settled by outsiders, like Vietnam and Iraq.

Although the military is finally getting the respect long overdue, the real tragedy of American consciousness is the brutal way our news media--and perhaps average citizen--attacks everyone else in public service. This pervasive cynicism is poison to republican democracy, where the people choose representatives to act in their place and to make decisions which affect the whole society. Frankly, I grow weary of the nit-picking way that pundits (i.e., political "experts") and news commentators (former traffic reporters and weekend weathermen) attack and castigate public figures and hold them to a standard of perfection which no reasonable person could demand of a friend, colleague or loved one.

Government workers are either "bureaucrats" or “political appointees” who mindlessly apply regulation and add processing burdens to every action for the express purpose of thwarting personal freedom and suppressing the expansion of commerce. Politicians are either crooks in it for personal gain or hypocrites who will say anything to get elected.

And what person of right mind would insist on linguistic perfection and a photographic memory in others? Granted, when John McCain confuses Iraq and Iran, that’s a little scary, but it was either a “senior moment” or a typical McCain goof-up. Nobody but Keith Olbermann actually believes Senator McCain doesn’t know the difference between two important Muslim nations with their widely divergent ethnic backgrounds, languages and histories. But the pundits had a field day at McCain's expense. Similiarly, when Barack Obama called his typical white grandmother a typical white grandmother, he was assailed as abusively lumping all Caucasians together. Then Hillary Clinton scrambled the details of a story about a plane landing 12 years ago, mistakenly recalling that they were under sniper fire. Of course, she was accused of lying, instead of simply having a faulty memory. America was born in a revolution, and we still enjoy overthrowing our leaders.

Don’t misunderstand my tone here. Some politicians abuse their trust. But there is a qualitative difference between Bill Clinton clumsily covering his adultery and George W. Bush pushing false intelligence reports for an excuse to take us to war. What has happened is that in this 24-hour-a-day-cable-news-cycle-blogospheric information society, and the stain on Monica’s dress has become as important as the 4,000 Americans and God-knows-how-many Iraqis who have died as a result of the criminal misconduct of this administration’s foreign policy. Brittany Spears' latest forray into rehab and the massive failure of the housing industry have merged into one dull ache. Americans can't tell the celebrities from the statesmen any more. No wonder people fear to enter public service.

Yet, I recall from my brief foray into elective politics, that most men and women who enter government service are decent, honorable, hard-working people who want to serve their communities, states and nation. This applies both to elected officials and public servants--dare we pronounce with a blessing the odious words?-- bureaucrats and politicians.

If I could wave my magic wand it would be to correct two excesses in the media and in society at large: people would turn from cynicism about ALL public figures to examine the behaviors of SOME officials which have serious consequences for all Americans. Corruption and deceit in high places should not be tolerated. However, when it comes to what people do in their private lives or whether they perfectly remember every incident of perfectly say everything in an inoffensive way--get real, grow up, live and let live, love thy enemies, forgive them for they know not what they do...pick your favorite cliché.

In any event, we need to take a lesson from Will Bowen and get a little more complaint-free when looking at people in public service. America would be a better place if grown-ups quit playing "Gotcha!" games. I could understand that in my middle schoolers, but isn't it about time we adults stopped arguing about what he said/she said and get back to studying ways to make this nation a better, healthier, happier place to live?