feasting without grace

Last week, David Leffler of Staring at Strangers posted a portion of a Peggy Noonan article from the Wall Street Journal. The article was entitled: "A Hope for America." I did a drive-by "flip and glib" on his comment page, and went my merry way.


When I arrived at work on Monday, a copy of the Noonan article was sitting on my office chair -- a gift from a fellow attorney. We will call her C. C and I have shared many a tale together -- some humorous, some emotional, some so jarring that you wonder if you will get through the next day.


We have very little in common when it comes to politics and religion. But the two of us will discuss any topic without impugning the honor of the other. That is why she wanted me to see the article.


Noonan sets the tone with this observation:

All this is part of the mood of the moment. It is marked in part by a sense that our great institutions are faltering, that they've forgotten the mission; that the old America in which we were raised is receding, and something new and quite unknown is taking its place; that our leaders have gone astray. There is even a feeling, a faint sense sometimes that we have been relegated to the role of walk-on in someone else's drama, that as citizens we are crucial and yet somehow...extraneous.

But we are Americans, and mean to make it better. We long to put the past few years behind us, move on, and write something good on the page we sense turning.

And that was before the financial institutions started wobbling. She goes on to the observation that C had highlighted:

And so I came to think this: What we need most right now, at this moment, is a kind of patriotic grace -- a grace that takes the long view, apprehends the moment we're in, comes up with ways of dealing with it, and eschews the politically cheap and manipulative. That admits affection and respect. That encourages them. That acknowledges that the small things that divide us are not worthy of the moment; that agrees that the things that can be done to ease the stresses we feel as a nation should be encouraged, while those that encourage our cohesion as a nation should be supported.

We can fight honorably and in good faith, while -- and this is the hard one -- both summoning and assuming good faith on the other side.

About the same time David posted his take on the Noonan column, I posted another red-blue-yellow electoral map -- without the yellow, which led to a lively series of comments about civility in American politics.


My initial response to the comments was to put today's acrimonious American politics in its historical context. American politics have always been nasty and personal -- sometimes breaking out in civil war. But that does not excuse the behavior. Why can C and I have a civil conversation about politics, but I will not even bring up the subject with others?


Here is an extreme example. I am a member of a Mexicio message board. In the eight months I have belonged to the board, any slight political comment will occasion the most irrational and personal outbursts making the poster sound as if he has missed at least three days of medication. And these are people who are otherwise quite calm and rational.


I have noticed that even in the more genteel world of Mexican bloggers that political references are almost always ensconced in protective fluff to avoid giving offence. I know that I do it. But I wonder why?


We feel free to talk about our various faiths -- and everyone is respectful. We talk about places to live, sights to see, eateries to enjoy -- and we all have a lively discussion without managing to break the crockery.


Over ten years ago, Peggy Noonan wrote in Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness:

Young black men will save our country. I'm not sure completely what I mean by this but--they're tough and smart and know how to survive...

I remember reading that paragraph at the time -- knowing that it was true, and, yet, not knowing why it was true. I still believe it.


And I think she is just as correct about the need for political grace. Senators McCain and Obama have tried to make this campaign a more noble campaign than some have been in the past. Unfortunately, to little effect.


But I know that political grace can exist. C and I have it. And I would invite each of us to put that same philosophy in effect. Maybe we need to ease into it.


I leave the last word to Peggy Noonan:

To me it is not quite a matter of "rising above partisanship," though that can be a very good thing. It's more a matter of remembering our responsibilities and reaffirming what it is to be an American.

Even an American in Mexico.