Thursday, May 4, 2023
Op-eds
Nathan R. Shrader: A dreadful week in
American politics
I WAS FORTUNATE to begin my career in politics around the age of
14 when I helped a neighbor in my native North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, with
his unsuccessful reelection campaign for local commissioner. Even though he
lost that campaign, I caught the political bug and haven’t been able to shake
it ever since.
About 28 years and dozens of campaigns and government service
opportunities later, my passion for American politics, warts, and all,
continues unabated. However, now I am experiencing it from a different vantage
point as a political science professor where I have the incredible opportunity
to help spark an interest in politics among the next generation of leaders. For
the most part, my students — no matter where I have taught — are not
hyper-partisans nor hardcore ideologues. They are inquisitive young people who
genuinely want to understand how our systems of government and politics work
and why.
You cannot imagine my heartbreak when I see events unfold as we
have over the past month in American politics. These events inevitably
contribute to the rising cynicism, mistrust, and lack of confidence —
especially among the young people just learning about our political process —
in the American way, which I define as respect for democracy, freedom of
thought and speech, the rule of law, and equal opportunity.
First, we have seen a former president of the United States,
Donald J. Trump, arrested and arraigned on 34 counts related to hush money
allegedly paid to an adult film star that ostensibly had nothing to do with his
actual presidency. Already we have learned that the judge in that case donated
to Trump’s opponent in the 2020 election, President Joe Biden, and that the
same jurist’s daughter served as a consultant to the short-lived Kamala Harris
for President campaign in 2020 and then to the Biden-Harris campaign.
Second, we have witnessed two young, courageous Black men
unjustly removed from their seats in the Tennessee legislature for daring to
challenge the existing power structure and the bleak status quo on firearm
massacres in schools and public places. Having worked in two state legislative
bodies in my career, I have never seen such a blatant, official act of racial
prejudice present itself on the floor of such a body as with the removal of
Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. Adding insult to injury, and
helping underscore the racist actions of the majority, a third White lawmaker
accused of the same “infractions” as the two Black members was allowed to
retain her seat.
Lastly, we have seen a sitting member of the United States
Congress, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, call for the impeachment of
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas without evidence that the second
Black Supreme Court justice in history had broken the law and before any facts
had emerged. There has already been an alarming increase in examples of
politicians demonizing and denigrating the Supreme Court and judiciary by
attacking the court’s integrity, the honor of those serving on it, and the very
foundations of the rule of law as the cornerstone of American law and society.
Now we have a member of the U.S. House — who has made her name not through any
legislative achievement, but by professionally grandstanding and
spotlight-seeking — looking to further delegitimize the highest court in the
land by threatening impeachment without evidence of illegal behavior.
All three of these incidents bring out the worst in American
politics. They collectively shape the enduring impression that our system is
broken beyond repair and that we are locked in an unwinnable battle between
competing “teams” who are willing to do anything, say anything, prosecute
anyone, impeach everyone, or expel from a public body those who do not adhere
to a certain narrow worldview.
What’s worse is that we have a generation that has come up in
the last two decades of politics and who are being socialized into our
political system today that have only the shared memory of our present politics
of personal destruction, partisan trench warfare, and expected ideological
purity.
We cannot go on this way. The three events outlined here — all
of which transpired in a single week — help to illustrate just how tenuous our
present situation truly is. It is time for all of us to take a deep breath,
rein in our own political agendas, and fix the toxic mess we have created.
America’s future depends on it.
Associate
Professor of Political Science Nathan R. Shrader, PhD., is also co-director of
the Center for Civic Engagement at New England College in Henniker. He lives in
Manchester.
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