Idealism versus Pragmatism

Recently I attended a political party fundraiser dinner at which all the candidates for governor spoke. Before the speeches began, I had the occasion to speak twice with the state’s current Lieutenant Governor who was one of the candidates. I quizzed him for perhaps 15 minutes on his positions on a number of issues, particular those that oppose the positions of the current governor. I wanted to try to understand why he believed the Governor was wrong and how he reconciled his positions with the constitutional conflicts they seem to imply. He said he disagreed with the federal spending, but he was a pragmatist and saw no alternative. He felt that we were only one state and that if we didn’t take it, others would. I also questioned his support of politicians who had no credentials to hold the offices they sought. His reply was that the reason it was hard to find good candidates was the low pay. When I pointed out some of the reasons Benjamin Franklin, Washington, Jefferson and others were so opposed to rewarding public office with high pay, he retorted that we were living in another time.

While I understand and can even appreciate why he felt these things, I’m not sure I will ever be able to agree. Clearly idealism alone will not solve the problems the country faces, but if we lose our ideals in the process of accepting the pragmatic views of others, then what are we? There is an obvious place and need for pragmatism, but when it subjugates our idealism we lose some of ourselves.

The more I study history, the more I find that times have not changed as much as many believe. Certainly our technology has advanced dramatically, but the behavior of people has changed little over the centuries. Cicero wrote about the very things that we are dealing with today. He wasn’t being prophetic; he was simply observing and commenting on the nature of mankind.

The recent actions of Congress challenge our entire belief system. The Constitution set out an amazing set of guidelines for us and left us with an enormous volume of explanations for their reasoning. Yet the Constitution alone has not prevented others from usurping power from the people through the courts. The judicial system has slowly chipped away at the meaning by declaring federal jurisdiction through its rulings. Those rulings have more force of law than the Constitution itself and are why there are such titanic struggles for control of the courts.

If we believe that the Constitution was intended to limit the powers of the federal government and if we believe that values and principles really matter, then we should stand up and defend those beliefs. The men and women that died defending our Constitutional rights certainly did. How can we so cavalierly give those values up under the guise of pragmatism? Is there nothing these people are willing to fight for in this country?

What can we do? We can loudly make our voices heard. We can stand on our principles. We can vote against all who do not defend our rights under the Constitution. We can insist on appointing only judges who will adhere to the original intent of the Constitution. We can tell all everywhere that we are tired of this intrusion and aren’t going to sit back idly and accept it. We can demand that our legislators pass legislation that begins to reverse this federal intrusion of our freedom. We can tell our state representatives to start standing up for the sovereignty of their state and the rights of its citizens. Even the courts listen when there is an overwhelming cry coming from the public. We must single out those who betray our freedom and ensure they hold no public office. These are but a few and there is a great deal more we can do. However, the one thing we must not do is to allow pragmatism to replace our idealism.