Election Day 2016
As I write these words, there are 425 days left until Election Day 2016. You are probably tired already—not of me, I trust, but of all the political haggling and silliness you’ve had to endure. Frankly, I’m glad you feel this way. Let me explain.
There is a seductive temptation facing all of us today. It arises from our overheated American politics and ensnares us through the seemingly limitless reach of cable news. This is the temptation to make politics too important, to move politics so much to the center of our lives that it comes to dominate the far more important matters of those lives.
We must reclaim an ancient truth: the purpose of government is to protect us as we live. That’s it. Family, faith, business, friendship, fun, and serving the needy—these are the rich essentials of living. Government is meant to help these pursuits flourish by protecting them and leaving them alone. In other words, government protects society, but government is not the same thing as society.
When we put government and politics at the center of our lives, we make the mistake of the Marxists. They make everything political by making all of life servant to the state. When this happens, the life of the individual is smothered. There is only politics and the priority of government.
When I think of this truth, I recall the words Boris Pasternak wrote in Dr. Zhivago. As the Russian Revolution unfolds, one of his characters declares, “The private life is dead in Russia.” This is what comes of making politics central: it kills the private life.
In the western tradition, the state exists to protect that private life. We believe that the private life is more important than public life, that human pursuits are more important than anything the state is up to. As my mentor George Grant once said, “American life has been marked by the distinct conviction that what goes on next door is of greater immediate concern than what goes on in Washington.”
This is nothing more than what our founding fathers intended. Listen to how Governor Morris, author of the first draft of the Constitution, expressed this truth: “The Constitution is not an instrument for government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government—lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” Notice Morris’ concern: that government might dominate “our lives and interests.” To prevent this, the people must “restrain” the government.
Patrick Henry said it even more poetically: “Liberty necessitates the diminutization of political ambition and concern. Liberty necessitates concentration on other matters than mere civil governance. Rather, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, freemen must think on these things.”
Now, I’ve recounted all this by way of offering a warning. We are living in an overheated political season. There are nearly twenty candidates vying for president of the United States. This comes after the eight years of the divisive and controversial presidency of Barack Obama. Passions are aflame. There is a constant undercurrent of anger. Politics seems all-consuming.
Don’t let the suffocating nature of modern politics shape you. Naturally, you should have informed opinions, back your candidate, and work for the changes you envision. Yet do not let politics creep to the center of your thinking, your family, your worship, or your heart. If you do, it won’t matter much where you are on the political spectrum: left, right, or center. The state and its political processes will dominate your life. Your private life—the rich and meaningful matters of faith, love, labor, and purpose—will calcify into an adornment of the state, into a mere extension of politics. You will become angry and hard. You may even lose your soul.
Government and the politics it inspires are important. Yet they are important mainly because God has ordained them and because they are designed to protect what is most meaningful in life. Let government creep into every area of life and we lose the life that gives our nation and our place in this world any meaning.
Be political. Don’t be all political. Life is so much more.
For example, your life can be partially about cheering Notre Dame against UVA this Saturday!
That’s it. Have a good weekend.
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