Political ideology is the idolatry of our day.
James Howell
James Howell is a Methodist minister in my town. From time to time he sends out little e-mail meditations. They are loving, thoughtful and thought-provoking.
Portions of a recent one were unusually pointed:
"I'm interested today in ... false correlation. We presume people buy 100 percent into one political ideology or the other. Many do, of course. So if someone welcomes immigrants, we conclude that person supports abortion. Or if someone likes tax breaks for business, he's against Black Lives Matter. You know the drill, the assumptions.
"Most people I know are smarter than that. Or we can be. As I repeat to you repeatedly, and I do so because I love you, political ideology is the idolatry of our day. We get duped into believing my political ideology will deliver, will be the dawn of greatness -- but if the other guys win, civilization will crash and burn. We see so clearly and know all truth; so how could the other half of the population be so stupid? If we could break with the false correlation habit, and think for ourselves on particular issues, and assume others do the same, we might break out of the stranglehold in which the bogus gods of political ieology are choking the life out of us.
"Jesus wasn't a Democrat or a Republican, although you can't name a single issue he wouldn't care about. ...
"Embarrasingly, the church at large and individual churches have stumbled headlong into society's false correlations. Some clergy and churches invest all they have in a liberal political agenda, propping that agenda up with thin theological and biblical support. Other clergy and churches invest all they have in a conservative political agenda, propping that agenda up with thin theological and biblical support. ...
"Friends, let's get really curious. Why do I think what I think? Have I really worked this through -- from God's perspective? Or am I just being blindly led about by politicians? What are the odds that every plank in one political ideology is rock-solid truth, and every plank the other guys stand on is so much foolishness?... "
Howell is a churchman and frames his thoughts accordingly. But his points should matter even among those who think the secular world is enough. Somewhere along the line, we have swallowed the idea that citizenship in a democracy need be no more complicated -- and no more demanding -- than mere side-taking.
Partisan leaders like this idea. It saves them work. It saves them dealing forthrighly with complexity in policy or merit in views different from their own. Far easier to say, Trust me, the other guys are bums.
Along these lines, the laziness of calumny has infected larger public discourse. In Howell's phrase, you know the drill, the assumptions. Lyndon Johnson was immoral; the second George Bush was stupid; Barack Obama was a covertly traitorous Muslim. And so on.
The common element in these echoes of yesteryear? They have absolutely nothing to do with the substance of public policy. That, partisan voices don't expect us to understand. The worst of them don't want us to. From us, acquiescence is enough.
The cost to the quality of our democracy is high. And today an especially bitter irony is added. Now that we have a president who is -- quite literally -- corrupt in his dealings, stupid, and personally immoral in his bones, we struggle for language to say it with effect to the core of his support.
His professed political ideology is attractive to many: lower taxes, smaller government, restrained judiciary. But what about venality and incompetence?
Ho hum. Nothing new there. The same has long been said of other leadership figures. Just one more political food fight.
We have so carelessly and casually trivialized the vocabulary of values that important words have lost the marrow of their meaning. Calling a president of the United States corrupt and inept has become commonplace. So has the cop-out of imputing moral superiority to our own political opinions.
We can be rid of bad leadership by bothering to go to the polls. Our larger civic lassitude is likely the harder problem.
