Well, that’s over. With this sewage overflow of an election behind us, we can all shower and enjoy the respite — what do we have, two weeks? three? — before the next one revs up. During this blissful interlude, maybe there’s space for a small proposal aimed at making the next cycle slightly less dreadful.
The market for something different could not be clearer. Unprecedented numbers of Americans are, in Post columnist George F. Will’s typically precise formulation, “exhausted and embarrassed.” Those affiliating with either party are at record lows. Self-described independents now compose half the electorate. Disgust with slime-and-smear politics and those who practice it now runs across the age, income and education spectrums.
Every time it seems rock bottom has been hit, someone excavates a little deeper. The 2026 cycle, in which well over half of all advertising was negative, featured a Republican ad where an estranged mother attacked her own daughter, and a Democratic cheap shot depicting a Republican congressman spying in a girls’ high school restroom. The nation has even endured celebrations of death, from President Donald Trump regarding career prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III to multiple leftists over the passing of Sen. Lindsey Graham and the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
One practice not new to politics is the candidate survey, sometimes in the form of a pledge to uphold some viewpoint or set of positions. Federal candidates are asked to respond to dozens of these, ranging from promises never to vote for a single dollar of taxes to the Democratic Socialists of America’s requirement that its candidates embrace open borders, “abolishing the police and prison system” and free everything.
How about one more, this one perhaps labeled the “Pledge of Political Respect”? It might read something like:
I will respect our election process and results — I will accept the election outcome and, should a recount prove necessary, the judgment of a court or other review tribunal.
I will respect the public’s intelligence — I will express myself with the dignity appropriate to the office I seek, avoiding the use of personal insult or profanity. My campaign will include constructive proposals as well as critiques of my opponent.
I will respect the laws of the country — I will forswear any attempt to instigate or influence the use of our legal system against political opponents.
I will respect my opponent — I will confine my criticisms to differences over policy, or to actions of the opponent himself/herself, never a family member or associate in any context unrelated to the public business or the office we are seeking.
I will respect the office I ask to hold — I will avoid any action that, in reality or appearance, produces personal gain that accrues to me solely because of that office.
The pledge would require one last commitment, to condemn any violation of these principles committed in the candidate’s name by any “independent” entity.
Each of these simple declarations could be reworded and improved by a public interest group adopting the suggestion, but you get the idea. The hope would be that those who sign such a statement would then be somewhat cautious about words or tactics that appear to violate their oath. Nonsigners could be asked by opposing candidates: “Which forms of respect do you disagree with?”
If enough takers are willing, or cornered into signing on, the effect might be to moderate even slightly the grossly crude and off-putting character of current political discourse and the damage it is doing to what is left of public confidence in America’s institutions. Hey, we can dream.
In April, an insurgent Hungarian political party ousted an incumbent prime minister by a margin that stunned most observers. One post-election analysis assigned the victory by Peter Magyar and his Tisza Party to public weariness with the incumbent’s “posturing and rhetoric” and “the widespread corruption he has fostered.” Economic or social issues surely played some role, but the election appears to have turned primarily on public revulsion at the way Hungarian politics was being conducted. A critical share of voters seemingly were “exhausted and embarrassed.”
The name “Tisza” combines the Hungarian words for “respect” and “freedom.” The United States has an unmet market need for a politics pursued with respect. If the two major parties, their candidates and the principle-free mercenaries who leech off extraordinarily expensive campaigns can’t produce it, we now at least have an idea for the name of a new party that could.
The post After the slimy midterms, let’s ask 2028 candidates to sign this pledge appeared first on Washington Post.
