US needs renewal after blithe certainty of past 4 years
Individual and public progress requires thinking and examination. Examination leads to ideas, change and realization. In some cases, realization leads to regret and, ideally, repentance. Next comes renewal and then progress and growth.
And soon we write another chapter in our history. We become better, individually and as a nation.
That has been the story of our country. It is why, rightly or wrongly, we speak of ourselves as an exceptional nation. Our exceptionalism lies in our nation’s ability to renew itself and to change, to understand and admit its flaws, to discern. It is not because of anything inherent in our character as U.S. citizens.
Elections are and should be a form of renewal — they allow us to correct our mistakes, to take a different tack, to pursue a different policy and strategy. Elections are a secular version of a religious holiday, as Easter in the Christian world is a form of renewal.
But renewal should not be confused with reinvention, which comes about capriciously and often by ambitious types of all stripes.
Take Sen. Ron Johnson’s position on the election: No, I will not object. Yes, I will object. And finally, after seeing on Jan. 6 what unhinged rhetoric can do, doing a final about face. That’s three reinventions in a month. I don’t recall the political winds ever being quite so volatile.
Renewal makes us objectively different people throughout life. Countries and people evolve. If we make it past 50 years of age, we have the privilege of being able to look back and, if we are honest, recognize our failings, while applauding our accomplishments.
If someone tells you they have no regrets, they have probably been living alone, in a cave. Certainly they have led an unexamined life. They are prone to insist on remaining blithely certain of things.
This is what we have witnessed these past four years — blithe certainty. This is what our current presidency and our own state Legislature have shown us, through bullying, contradiction and ultimately stasis.
Neither President Donald Trump nor our own representatives have been able to change, to admit a mistake, to graciously concede any ground or position, to evolve and grow.
In the face of monumental problems and challenges facing us in the next decades, we need good governance more than ever. What is frightening about our stark divisions is the depth of belief in fraud and conspiracy.
The blather that has flowed forth from the far right these past four years is venomous. It has underpinned a twisted conspiratorial narrative about our elections, public institutions and elected officials. It has replaced civil debate.
It is untrue, wrong and most damaging — an insult used by the far right to manipulate many of our fellow citizens who are looking for assurance and hope in this time of historic anxiety. Just what were the “objections” of Johnson and U.S. Reps. Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Tiffany to the Electoral College vote?
They must have known, like state Reps. Jeffrey Steffen and David Mursau, who asked last Thursday to dismiss their own election lawsuit, that this theater would go nowhere. The positions of all of these public officials are in stark contrast to the statesman-like words of Rep. Michael Gallagher. What are they really doing? Burnishing their right-wing credentials, disguised as men of the people, anticipating future elections while saying anything to hold onto their jobs. Profiles in courage they are not. One can only hope that they have their regrets and demonstrate their own renewal by recognizing mistakes and doing their jobs. We, as well as they, would all become better individually and as a nation.
Peter F. Kranstover of Cedarburg is a retired foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department agency USAID. He and his wife spent nearly 20 years overseas in Africa, Latin America and Pakistan.