How long can our democracy sustain itself like this?
Many people think Americans have gotten ruder since the COVID-19 pandemic. This morning, Chuck Schumer may agree with them.
Enough Senate Democrats voted for a Republican spending bill last Friday to avoid a government shutdown. Led by their minority leader, Charles Schumer (D, NY), they chose the GOP’s spending regime rather than be blamed for a shutdown they feared would further empower President Trump.
Many Democrats, however, consider Schumer’s decision to be so heinous that they are questioning whether he should step down as their leader. According to the Hill, the minority leader is now the center of a “civil war” within his party. A senior Democratic aide said of the frustration toward Schumer, “I’ve never seen anything like it in the time I’ve been in the Senate toward any leader on our side.” The furor comes at a time when, according to a CNN poll released yesterday, their party’s favorability rating among Americans stands at a record low.
If you’re a Democrat, you are likely troubled by this news and what it may mean for the future of your party. If you’re a Republican, you are likely pleased by this news for the same reason. However, this story is symptomatic of a much deeper issue with implications for the future of our democracy.
Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill
Partisan divisions are inevitable in any disparate society that attempts to govern itself through participatory democracy. Nearly every true democracy on the planet (apart from small countries such as Micronesia, Tuvalu, and Palau) consists of political parties, many with many of them. (Thirty-nine parties participated in Israel’s last election, for example.)
But the depth of partisan rancor we are experiencing today is not simply a function of democracy. For example, President Ronald Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill were political opposites, but they were also good friends. In his book Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked, Chris Matthews describes a scene that typifies their relationship.
After President Reagan was shot and nearly killed in 1981, O’Neill was one of the first people the president let visit him in his hospital room. O’Neill grasped both of the president’s hands and said, “God bless you, Mr. President.” The president, still groggy, thanked him for coming.
The speaker, holding one of Mr. Reagan’s hands, got on his knees and said he would like to offer a prayer for the president, choosing the Twenty-Third Psalm. Then O’Neill kissed Reagan on the forehead.
That was then, this is now.
Today, 63 percent of Democrats see Republicans as immoral, while 72 percent of Republicans view Democrats in the same way. Nearly half of Americans consider members of the opposing political party to be “downright evil.”
President Ronald Reagan instructed his staff, “Remember, we have no enemies, only opponents.” “Enemies” must be defeated at all costs. To seek a middle ground or consensus is to compromise with evil. One side must win, which means the other side must lose.
How long can a consensual democracy sustain itself like this?
“They worshiped him, but some doubted”
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, “not even his brothers believed in him” (John 7:5). In fact, at one point “they were saying, ‘He is out of his mind’” (Mark 3:21).
However, one of his brothers later became the leader of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13–21) and author of the biblical book of James. Another became the author of the New Testament book of Jude.
When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, “all the disciples left him and fled” (Matthew 26:56); Peter then infamously denied his Lord three times (vv. 69–75). When the apostles later met the risen Lord, “they worshiped him, but some doubted” (Matthew 28:17, my emphasis).
However, Peter became the prophetic preacher of Pentecost and bold witness before the very authorities who executed his Lord (Acts 5:29). And the other apostles led in advancing the nascent Christian movement so effectively that it “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).
When we love those who do not love us
Our postmodern, secularized society is convinced that all truth claims are personal and subjective. As a result, when we differ in our opinions, reasoning toward a solution and consensus is pointless. Rather, we congregate in political “tribes” with those who already agree with us and see the other side as wrong and even evil.
But Christians know that Christ can change any heart and transform any life. What he did with his apostles, he has done with us. So we see the other “side” as people for whom Jesus died. And we know that no one is beyond the reach of his grace.
As a result, even when we disagree deeply on the most divisive issues of our day, we will refuse to slander (1 Peter 2:1). We will “honor the emperor” (v. 17) and pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1–2). And we will model the humility and compassion that are essential in any participatory governance.
We should not be surprised when lost people act like lost people. But when Christians engage in the same political slander and vitriol, our Lord is shamed and our witness damaged. By contrast, when we love those who do not love us, our broken culture is surprised and drawn closer to the Source of our grace. The more people reject our message, the more urgently they need it.
Establishing two hundred churches in Ireland
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, the annual holiday commemorating the death of the patron saint of Ireland in AD 461. He was enslaved at age sixteen, came to faith in Christ, and escaped to return home at age twenty-two.
But God called him to go back to his Irish captors as a missionary. When his career was over, he had established some two hundred churches in Ireland and led more than one hundred thousand people to Christ.
Despite more than a dozen attempts on his life, Patrick saw the Irish not as his enemies but as people in need of God’s grace. Accordingly, he wrote in his Confessions, “The Irish, who had never had the knowledge of God and worshiped only idols and unclean things, have lately become the people of the Lord, and are called sons of God.”
St. Patrick closed his memoirs by explaining the secret to his history-changing ministry:
“Do you judge, and let it be most firmly believed, that it was the gift of God.”
With whom will you share this “gift” today?
NOTE: For more on today’s topic, please see my recent website article, “Democrats clear way for funding bill, end threat of shutdown.”
Quote for the day:
“Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.” —St. Patrick
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