by Mustang
Good character while participating in our system of government — Civic Virtue — is what preserves our values and principles (individually, communally, and nationally). Sadly, we appear not to have had civic virtue in our country for a very long time — and some will argue that we’ve never had it at all … an argument based on the belief that men are incapable of virtue. I hope that’s not true, but I admit that I am beginning to lose my confidence.
Our Constitution presumes that certain virtues exist among “the people,” with self-restraint being one of them. In this sense, of course, I am speaking of keeping our eye on a higher goal than the pettiness of party politics. Call it “service to others” at some cost to ourselves.
The problem, or so it seems to me, is not so much that our political parties have changed so drastically over the past 100 years — which indeed they have — but rather that “we the people” have changed so much over the past 100 years. Suppose Benjamin Franklin correctly identifies virtue as temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, tranquility, chastity, and humility. In that case, I fail to see where we, either as individuals or collectively, have maintained it. Even worse, I don’t know what to suggest as the means for reclaiming it. When Americans no longer have the capacity for thinking for themselves, when “group think” takes over (as it has), then where do we go from there?
Political parties today, as expressions of who we are, what we believe, and how we intend to achieve that, seem to have no common goals beyond obtaining and keeping power. Toward that end, in the present, we may discern a change in voter attitudes (emphasis on “may”), but the mechanism for corruption among the ideologues and apparatchiks remains intact. Technology more or less guarantees that the corruption of our electoral system will become worse — and that over time, “we the people” will have even less say about our Republic. My lack of confidence comes from the realization that so long as a voter’s party retains power, then there is nothing for them to worry about because the ends have justified their means.
I ask myself, how is it possible that the American people — left and right — have such little regard for members of Congress throughout their congressional term and yet reelect them election-cycle after election-cycle? It is incredible. It doesn’t matter if the electoral system is corrupt so long as “our party — our guy” wins. Has “perceived self-interest” replaced civic virtue? My guess — predicated on the fact that less than one percent of our population is willing to stand up for a purpose greater than themselves — is “yes.” If any of this is true, then do we have any reasonable expectations that our Republic will long endure?
Photo:“A Wall at the National Constition Center” by Why Tuesday? is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Mustang also blogs at Fix Bayonets and Thoughts From Afar
December 19, 2021 at 9:32 am
[…] Bunkerville wonders what happened to civic virtue […]
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December 18, 2021 at 1:03 am
It left town when the 17th amendment and Federal Reserve arrived.
“…there is nothing for them to worry about because the ends have justified their means.” Exactly so.
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December 18, 2021 at 5:32 am
Add to that Nixon getting rid of the gold standard… now this crypto business should work out swell..
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December 17, 2021 at 1:43 pm
I knew I was in the 1%. Don’t tell nobody.
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December 17, 2021 at 8:25 pm
Just between us here.
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December 17, 2021 at 11:42 am
I was talking one time with a person who asked if I could go back and relive my life, eliminating all of the bad things I had done and correcting all of the mistakes, would I do so? I said no. He followed then with a question that if I could eliminate all of those things from my memory would I do so? Again, no.
Life is a journey and every step in that journey, good and bad, is what brought me to this point. If I went back and changed the steps that brought me here, I would not be here. I would have been on a different journey. I would not be me. I would be a different person. I might be a better person, I might be worse, but I would not be who I am.
One learns from mistakes. What you learn makes you better, and if you were able to undo your mistakes you would eliminate what you learned. Eliminating your mistakes would leave you a lesser person.
This applies to nations as well. If we try to change our past we change our present. We become not who we are. We become adrift with no memories and no history which leaves us anchorless. Unformed. No sense of purpose.
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December 17, 2021 at 8:26 pm
Well said. Now there is only the present.
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December 17, 2021 at 9:17 am
Compounding our problems is an education system (public monopoly) that is dominated by Progressive New Left ideologues who hate American Exceptionalism and hate the idea that our nation is one of two conceived as Covenant Nations. The steady erosion of those central ideas combined with a corporate propaganda led push toward materialism and impulse satisfaction has nearly destroyed the moral fabric of our nation. Churches on the whole have been seduced by Prosperity Doctrine and focus on tickling ears rather than saving souls. We have allowed the former Weather Underground to march through our institutions like the Huns and for the most part the resistance has been feeble. We now live in an age where young teens kill each other for the latest model of Nike shoe. So what could possibly go wrong with that? When I say to people our only hope is Revival I am talking at the most fundamental level. Until the American People acknowledge and fear a power greater than the individual we an expect all aspects of society to degrade and fragment. The best evidence of this I can find now is in the Great Sort. Folks are fleeing progressive utopias and are moving to little outposts of faith and values like my little burg here in the mountains of Northwest Arizona. People are fleeing the grand ideas of the progressive movements because in the end they simply do not work. Our hope is that they do not bring that poison here.
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December 17, 2021 at 9:46 am
The only guarantee offered through public education is that upon graduation from high school, our children will know less about almost everything than they did on their first day in the first grade. The two greatest tricks played on us by Satan were first, to convince us he doesn’t exist, with public education being the second. And yet, we sleep.
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December 17, 2021 at 9:56 am
My little outpost in Amish land has now become the number one dumping ground by the NGO’s. Just read that our little community has received more illegals and Afghans than any other location in the U.S.. No place is safe anymore. You would not recognize America at the Walmarts.
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December 17, 2021 at 10:33 am
Is the local community doing anything about this situation? After all, they’re paying for it. Just thinking of pitchforks and torches in the middle of the night.
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December 17, 2021 at 10:46 am
Unfortunately… the Amish are not known for their vigor..
Just a sample
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December 17, 2021 at 10:49 am
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December 17, 2021 at 10:14 am
To back up nrringlee’s assertion on education, there is this tweet with a screen capture from the Mail. It seems that education problems with math have gone international for the liberals.
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December 17, 2021 at 8:20 am
I would guess that it got replaced by political opportunism. It may have gone down with Republicans who reacted to the Kennedy election cheating. It may have been Democrats reacting to Tricky Dick.
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December 17, 2021 at 9:53 am
I do not believe the American people ever trusted their politicians, but in our early period, that was okay because they had confidence in one another — to see through all the B.S. and toss the rascals out. But there has always been a long line of rascals waiting for their turn at bat, and it’s become impossible to have confidence in a neighbor who decorates their front lawn with Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden signs. How does voting for scum advance our nation?
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