BROOKINGS — This nation’s political system is not functioning the way it should right now, but the situation is not beyond repair.
That’s the message delivered by Jon Meacham at the Daschle Dialogues on April 7 at the First Bank & Trust Arena on the campus of South Dakota State University.
Meacham is a frequent contributor to Time and appears one MSNBC, CNN and other major news outlets. Meacham was the managing editor at Newsweek and is also the creator of two popular History Channel podcasts. He has authored many books, including his latest, “American Struggle.”
In his introduction of Meacham, former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle praised Meacham for his efforts to capture the nation’s history.
Daschle said the Pulitzer Prize winner is “one of the greatest public intellectuals we have in our country today.”
In his speech, Meacham deflected that praise, saying it’s “a little bit like being described as the best restaurant in a hospital. You want to win it, but it’s not that hard.”
After landing that and a couple more jokes, Meacham went on to discuss the current political landscape.
Meacham said the kind of politics and statesmanship embodied by Daschle is something that the nation need a lot more of today.
“I never questioned whether that man took his oath to the Constitution of the United States seriously,” Meacham said.
Meacham said, contrary to the political situation today, politics should be an “arena of contention,” where there are rivals and opponents but no enemies, because enemies can’t be compromised with. And today’s political scene is like “perpetual warfare.”
He said the political system the nation needs to avoid are the forces of chaos. “It can’t be a rage for power. It has to be an arena of contention where I might agree with you on Tuesday, (but) we’re going to battle it out on Thursday.”
He said what is vital for a return to a healthy political scene is a respect for the U.S. Constitution and a greater adherence to the creed of “love thy neighbor.” And both of those qualities are lacking in the nation’s political leadership today.
He said under the current political polarization there is not enough room for compromise.
“I’m not willing to surrender an experiment that began in Philadelphia for which men and women have died, from Lexington and Concord to Gettysburg to Omaha Beach … I’m not willing to give that up because of a social media algorithm and cable news.”
He also said it’s important that people see each other as neighbors. “Jesus would not have had to say ‘love thy neighbor,’ if everyone was already busy loving their neighbors,” Meacham said. He said people were not loving their neighbors enough then and they’re not doing it enough now.
He said Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served during one of the darkest periods in U.S. history, knew the importance of seeing each other as neighbors and not enemies.
“America is a moral undertaking. It’s about how we are with each other,” Meacham said,
He said people should have the Declaration of Independence as a mission statement and the U.S. Constitution as a user’s guide. “We must find out how we (let) this happen and how (to) get out of it.”
“It should not have partisan implications to say ‘I believe in the Constitution’ and the fact that it does shows just how askew things are,” Meacham said.
He said too many are placing the needs of one person or one party above those of the country, and that people need the best parts of their human nature to overcome the worst parts of it.
He said the current incumbent in the White House is vastly entertaining, but that the nation needs more than that to make things right. Meacham added that “America should not be a reality TV show.”
He said key to the success of the U.S. system is the reduction of fear that is behind much of today’s enmity and an increase in the amount of hope.
— Contact Doug Kott at [email protected].
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