There is some small fraction of Americans — conspiracy bloggers, radio hosts, performance artists somehow elected to public office — who prosper from and presumably revel in this century’s rapid collapse of long-standing norms in the public square. Like it or not, standards of both conduct and discourse have shifted unmistakably and radically downward.
There is some small fraction of Americans — conspiracy bloggers, radio hosts, performance artists somehow elected to public office — who prosper from and presumably revel in this century’s rapid collapse of long-standing norms in the public square. Like it or not, standards of both conduct and discourse have shifted unmistakably and radically downward.
A large majority of the rest of the country, spanning the ideological spectrum minus its fevered edges, seems weary and discouraged. We may nurture the hope that the decadence is temporary, but we must accept the reality that in many respects it is likely here to stay. Surveying the wasteland, we wonder, are we looking at a pendulum or a rachet?
The nation’s history furnishes bountiful examples of pendulum swings. Often, maybe typically, we have chosen presidents whose qualities and programs contrast with those of their immediate predecessor. Think John F. Kennedy after Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan after Jimmy Carter, Warren G. Harding after Woodrow Wilson, Joe Biden after Donald Trump. (Biden campaigned as Harding but tried to govern like Wilson.)
The balance between executive and legislative power has shifted back and forth in different eras. We’ve seen levels of campaign viciousness ebb and flow, periods of public corruption produce sweeping reforms. So one can ask whether at least some of our present pathologies will prove ephemeral.
Allow me to start at the relatively trivial end of the list. Profanity is suddenly mainstream. Once unacceptable words, specifically the one you know I’m thinking of, are everywhere. From comedians who apparently couldn’t get laughs without them, to politicians who must think it makes them look tough, the grossness has now infected even our formerly proudest and most stately publications. However one might wish, it seems unlikely that once the vulgar becomes commonplace, society will ever re-rule it out of bounds.
The infantilization of political debate, and personal demonization of opponents, may similarly have ratcheted downward, although on this score one can imagine some recovery. At some point, the public could tire of playground insults and asinine nicknames, and start asking for a little more substance from those elected to serve them. Interminable stalemate, especially when the country enters a stretch of serious economic or national security difficulty, could trigger a collective demand to “Grow up.”
Where words verge into conduct, the stakes increase but the future is no clearer. The current moves to redraw congressional lines for nakedly partisan ends still offend the traditional American sense of fair play. The fact that the two parties are equally culpable and shameless about it has sparked broad back pressure. Calls for nonpartisan commissions or other reforms seem to have somewhat greater momentum in states red and blue.
Cronyism has enjoyed a good run lately. The Biden administration’s lavish funding of politically aligned unions and nonprofits has been succeeded by pay-to-play favoritism of the old-fashioned kind. For the moment, the public is passively tolerant. But a Credit Mobilier, Teapot Dome or Watergate-like episode could well send a pendulum back toward higher ethical expectations.
Finally, there is lawfare. Both sides’ hands are filthy, and the ugly game of tit-for-tat may continue. But here, there is the opportunity for the nation’s courts to play both a restraining and a tutorial role. And again, one sees the chance that a commitment to simple fairness might override vengeful tribalism.
Where norms are not permanently ratcheted into their warped state, a pendulum still will need a push. We await leaders with the gumption to say “Enough.” To lay claim to the currently vacant high ground in the way they speak and the respect they show their opponents. To say, of the temptations to rig the electoral map, trespass on the prerogatives of another branch of government or utilize power to punish adversaries, “I could but I won’t.”
To the political mercenaries and professional cynics who find that idea comically and suicidally naive, one can only reply that we won’t know until somebody tries it. Where I live, one meets people every day who are fed up with both the style and the content of what passes for our system of self-government.
Of course, a tacit assumption underlies all this goody-goody commentary, namely that one’s goal in public life is the success of the nation, the promotion of the general welfare. Action against our huge and looming challenges will require some rediscovery of common purpose, some empathy with those who disagree, some recovery of the art of peaceful compromise.
We may have “outgrown” our capacity for revulsion in popular culture and maybe even in the way we expect our political leaders to talk and behave. But if Americans conclude that our political class stayed busy hurling third-grade insults at each other, and feathering their own nests, as the national debt and national security dangers turned catastrophic, a pendulum will swing. And it will have a sharp edge on it. The kind that ends political careers.
The post Public norms have been warped, no doubt. Is the damage permanent?
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