The Virtue of Partisanship
No doubt, you are sick and tired of our politicians bickering and arguing and – in general, not getting along. I concur – to a degree. On one hand, where are the politicians who love our country enough to sign their name to a document whose closing words were: “In support of this declaration, we mutually pledge to each other, our fortunes, our lives and our sacred honor”? We would have much less rancor in D. C. if President Obama and his supporters and Speaker Boehner and his supporters could sign a statement like that – and mean it.
That would be unity. That would be the type of unity that the apostle Paul enjoins upon Christians when he says, “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3).
In a congregation of Christ, there is no substitute for having that type of unity. It inspires the members. It strengthens them for a world that is, by nature, divisive. It draws Christians together and draws outsiders in. Selfless unity is like a magnet that draws and holds.
Unfortunately, D. C. is nothing like the church. There is not much unity there because D. C. is not the church. Few up there are Christians and few act as if they were. So many of the politicians are after their own interests. Frequently, bills are decried as “incumbent-protection” bills. Laws designed to meet special interest groups’ wishes that bring in the money which allow the incumbents to outspend their opponent.
Democracy. Our system is currently a two-party system. It is inevitable that polarizations would come. One stands up for the producer, one stands up for the consumer. You are now polarized. In the church, you don’t need representatives. Why? Because two Christians can (should) work out their differences between the two, as Jesus instructs in passages like Matthew 5:23-24 and 18:15-17. That’s the ideal because that is Christianity.
But we don’t live in an ideal world. In a speech in the House of Commons on November 11, 1947, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.”
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But we have this system set up in our country and, as Churchill said, our system is the worst form of government except for all the rest. The inherent problem with any system of self-government is the “self” part. Man who is left to himself is destined for destruction.
James Madison, who threw away better material than modern politicians write, had this to say in the Federalist 51: “The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”
The heart of this “American experiment” is the rule of a written Constitution. God foresaw the need for His own people to have a written, immutable law to which all Christians – both non-leaders and elders and preachers – were accountable. In that spirit, our founding fathers knew that, since men weren’t angels, they needed to be held accountable to a written law which they, themselves could not change.
God bless them for that. Our founding fathers had an important insight into man’s nature. When men (or a conglomeration of men such as a political party) get into power, they tend to think they can do what they want to do. Just as men have a hard time submitting to God’s written word, so men also have a difficult time submitting to man’s written word (the Constitution). The British historian, Lord Acton, wrote in a letter in 1887: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
That’s why I consider partisanship – in this modern climate – a virtue. When one political party is in power, the other political party calls them on the carpet, calling them back to the Constitution. When another political party is in power, the same thing happens. Were it not that way but man is not an angel and neither are our politicians.
Partisanship, in a perverted way, is good for the country. It keeps people in power from exercising ultimate, dictatorial power. The Constitution was designed to protect the average citizen from abuse of power. Until man can come up with a better way to govern himself, that’s the way it has to be.
–Paul Holland
