The Politics of Collective Responsibility

It's Iowa, and so it is not unusual for me to say that I have thus far met five presidential candidates. As one of those candidates joked, "Iowans like to kick the tires and look under the hood" of candidates. Whether it's because we like to, or simply because we can, first-hand contact is relatively easy. Moreso, meaningful interaction with these candidates for the "highest office in the land" is within reach. Two of the candidates have stood in our church building (the lawyers would want me to insert loudly here that outside, non-partisan groups -- and not our church-- were the hosts for these gatherings, and that all candidates from both parties received invitations) and responded not only to questions from the audience but also to their follow-ups when the answers seemed, hmmm, less than focused. As another of those candidates observed, it is "politics as it was meant to be."

This past Friday, during one of those forums, the candidate was seemingly caught off guard when an audience member mentioned that everyone wants to know what we can expect from the candidate; what she wanted to know was what that candidate expected from us -- the American People? He hemmed, he hawed. He finally confessed that he hadn't thought much about that, but that it was a very good question.

In that simple exchange, it seemed to me, was spotlighted the core of the unhealthiness that has come to characterize American public life. I don't really want to give the politicians a free pass, here, but those of us who frequent the voting booth need to recover the truth that we have not fulfilled our civic obligation once we have scratched a mark beside a name. I continue to be a citizen long after the votes are counted, with a vested interest in public life. I don't have permission to crawl back into my cave until the next election. In the same way that I can't expect my spouse to read my mind, I cannot assume that my political representatives simply intuit my priorities and values.

A wise teacher once told me, "If you want to know something, ask; if you want someone else to know something, tell them."

Ask. Tell. Even if it is easier to vote and then complain. Our system isn't designed for the many of us to simply "consume" what we elect folks to "produce." We elect representatives to accomplish what is only possible as long as we continue the relationship. Opportunity, coupled with responsibility.

Or, as the old folk song puts it, "This land is your land, this land is my land." Our land. Together.