Bob Dole and Harry Reid wouldn’t have made it in politics today. That’s our loss.
Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator, Senate majority leader and Republican presidential nominee, died earlier this month. Former Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada died on Tuesday. It seems fitting that these two formidable lawmakers, who each spent roughly three decades in the Senate (overlapping for about 10 years), departed within weeks of one another.
Their politics could not have been more different, but their similarities were striking. Neither were people-pleasers, nor were they charismatic.
But they were both witty and tough. They shepherded major legislation: Dole championed the Americans With Disabilities Act and food stamp reform; Reid produced a victory on the Affordable Care Act. Both endured attempts to remove their party’s president from office through impeachment. Their political careers seem as far removed from today’s politics as Babe Ruth is from modern ballplayers. (The baseball legend was playing when Dole was born and retired four years before Reid was born.)
It’s fair to say that neither Dole nor Reid would have been elected in the age of social media. They could be surly, quick-tempered and overtly partisan. Their strengths (tenacity, integrity, knowledge of Senate rules, a nose for a deal) do not count for all that much in the present era. Their weaknesses a lack of charm, most clearly - would be barriers to advancement in our personality-driven, superficial politics. Their word was their bond, in contrast to the all-too-common practice nowadays of disassociating oneself from previous pledges (e.g., no Supreme Court confirmations in an election year!).
Their backgrounds were typical of politicians of their era. They were not born rich. (Reid was dirt poor, in fact.) Both were raised in small towns, excelled at sports
(Reid in boxing, Dole in football, basketball and track) and faced hardship (Reid from poverty, Dole from a disabling injury). They did not need to fake the common touch or affect a country accent to relate to voters.
They grew up with qualities in rare supply among our current politicians - humility, a disinclination for the limelight and life experiences not much different from “regular Americans.” Dole and Reid were in politics to do a job for their party, for the presidents they work alongside and for their country. They did not go to D.C. to seek fame, to spend their time on TV promoting themselves (although Dole, due to his longevity, was among the most frequent guests in “Meet the Press” history) or to lay the groundwork for a career on K Street.
They were men of substance and seriousness. They understood their responsibilities as public servants. The political system no longer rewards such qualities, so it follows that we have few figures who embody those qualities. Indeed, our political and media environment seems to weed them out.
No one gets far in national politics these days without grandstanding, concocting mindless memes and spending hours upon hours raising money. That goes a long way to explain the dysfunctional state of our politics.
The gap in stature between, on one hand, Dole, Reid and many of their Senate contemporaries (e.g., Republican John Mccain of Arizona and Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York) and, on the other, Senate Republicans such as Ted Cruz of Texas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, is immense. The current performance politicians who deliberately spread disinformation, churn up fake issues and resort to childish name-calling think of politics as a big game. To them, their own political survival is the only North Star. That idea was anathema to politicians such as Dole and Reid.
We get the politicians we deserve, I suppose. If the electorate remains distracted, uninformed and unserious, politicians will share those qualities. It just so happens those characteristics corrode our democracy and impair problemsolving.
In an op-ed published after his death, Dole wrote, “When we prioritize principles over party and humanity over personal legacy, we accomplish far more as a nation. By leading with a shared faith in each other, we become America at its best: a beacon of hope, a source of comfort in crisis, a shield against those who threaten freedom.” If those words seem quaint and anachronistic, it is because our politics is light-years from the politics of Dole and Reid. It should surprise no one that we now face an existential crisis for democracy.