Common Old Boy – Political arguments, Calhoun and Toleration

“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.” Thomas Jefferson.

I had to write something on this after just hearing so many naïve, disingenuous or just plain mean comments regarding recent events in Calhoun. I have a personal stake in this argument in Calhoun, as those closest to me regularly get quite nasty and personal attacks made against them.

It seems so many people want everyone to behave themselves, to not argue with another to ‘be nice’. You can hear this in conversations in Calhoun, in the US, internationally and most certainly online. Many on the left particularly talk about there being too much argument and too much ‘extreme’ language. But not just the left, since Butler PA the right too has made the same point about the language used in politics. To quote Rodney King at the time of the LA riots, ‘can’t we all just get along?’, well to some extent yes.

Thomas Jefferson though is totally correct, it goes even further than just the nature of man, it is also inherent in the differing views of the world and what the role of government is. That basic disagreement is a real one and passions will always brew up.

We are argumentative creatures, but some things are worth arguing about: 

• What is the role of government?

• What are democratic rights?

• How far does personal responsibility go?

• Should there be a social safety net?

• What wars should be fought?

The list is endless, but these kind of questions are at the root of our politics, and we really disagree which other. The answers to these questions every few years are what we call elections, and they really do matter.

What is also critical in politics is keeping the government to account, as the late great Thomas Paine said, ‘a body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody’. Government never likes to be held accountable and will always look to portray themselves in the best light, and if all else fails they will lie, obfuscate or stay silent. The role of the citizen is to keep government accountable, however difficult that sometimes is. ‘Being nice’ is all well and good when it doesn’t matter, but when it does matter ‘being kind’ can be at best naïve and at worst complicit. We really need to know:

• Who controls what?

• Who has done what?

• And, where’s the money?

Long live the argumentative, questioning, difficult citizenry.