A Body Politic No More

It hardly needs to be proven, beyond the years of personal experience which we each possess, that human beings are creatures of habit, that we often prefer the humdrum of daily bourgeois life to the uncertainties of political activity and civic action. The present writer is no exception to this general trend – it would be nice to claim otherwise, but that would be supremely disingenuous.

With this in mind, let us hop onto the campaign trail, where I shall relate many examples of the startlingly moribund political society emerging in modern America.

Over winter break, I spent eleven days with Senator John McCain’s campaign in Manchester, New Hampshire, assisting in the (successful) effort to win the New Hampshire Republican primary. As part of the campaign process, sign waves were a common activity – early in the morning, usually during rush hour, volunteers would stand at a busy intersection, holding signs and waving at commuters. At one such sign wave, the McCain volunteers were flanked by dozens of Senator Hillary Clinton supporters, and a few Representative Dennis Kucinich supporters.

Apparently, we were too loud, and a police officer eventually drove by, giving what was ostensibly a command, but which a few friends and I interpreted as a request. Acting as though they were quite familiar, and comfortable, with a domineering State, the Clinton supporters nodded their heads and acquiesced to the officer’s request. Only the Kucinich and McCain supporters seemed to begrudge such overbearing action.

A second incident occurred only minutes later, as two fellow McCain supporters and I went to a local coffee shop in order to get breakfast and to take a break from the glorious New England winter weather. One friend had already ordered, and while waiting for his food, posed a question to a Clinton supporter in the café, to the effect of, Why do you support Senator Clinton?

The question was blatantly innocent, posed by one political activist to another. Yet, the manager of the café, or Herr Goebbels – as I proceeded to call him because of his propagandized account of the appropriate forum for free speech – accused us of starting trouble and told us to leave. Supposedly, his café prefers mindless chatter to genuine discussion. What a departure from the traditional function of local coffee shops, which irrefutably assisted in the effort to spread the 18th-century Enlightenment, and the accompanying ideals of liberty and brotherhood!

I am at a loss for how to label this sort of behavior properly, but calling it a misguided sense of civility may be the most appropriate. It is misguided because maintaining civility need not preclude political discussion. If I had started throwing punches because of the manager’s inanity, which I cannot say that I did not contemplate, then that would have been uncivil. But merely discussing political preferences with a fellow person can hardly be seen as such. Unfortunately, far too many people are so utterly dead inside, that nothing seems to animate them or to infuse passion into their lives – least of all political thought.

A third incident occurred just days later, during another sign wave. Several McCain supporters, myself included, drove to Londonderry, so as to influence, as best we could, voters’ minds in the last few days before the primary. The chosen location was a rotary near the center of town, which had a circular oasis in the center, where a walkway made of asphalt connected two of the sides of the rotary.

Thinking the oasis would be the safest, least intrusive, and most effective place to hold our sign wave, we walked out to the walkway and began waving our signs. Later, a man identified to us as an off-duty police officer (who also happened to be wearing a Mitt Romney hat), barked that we could not hold our sign wave there.

Confused, and suspecting foul play, I asked the man to cite me the statute that (unconstitutionally, unless overwhelming evidence could be provided that civic action in that specific place was a danger to drivers and pedestrians) bars demonstrations from that area. He retorted, “It’s a town ordinance, pal,” thereby only verbally changing the type of law, but still neglecting to cite the law. That Tory swine – this is an opinion journal, remember – then drove away, presumably to bully more civically-engaged citizens.

I have only enumerated those instances of State intrusion and neutered public life which have occurred in my presence in the last month. Needless to say, we all know that such abuses are commonly perpetrated, and perverted views of civility commonly voiced, throughout our country every day. In reference to the people who engage in civil neglect, thereby letting the aforementioned rubbish continue without chastisment, I wrote the following on January 15, 2007, in a blog post on the Spectator’s website:

“These [citizens who could involve themselves in civic life, but who cravenly distance themselves] are people who may have certain ideals, but who hardly have the gumption to implement them into society. They live and breathe, but seem to rarely ask, Why? They believe that the unexamined life IS actually worth living. They may rebel a little in adolescence, but generally, it seems, because their own selfish self-interests come into conflict with what society or their parents expect of them. They may offer complaints, but when it comes time to throw their cards down, and thereby endure personal sacrifice, they tend to run. Such folly and selfishness!”

I stand by those words, now more than ever. When revolution was brewing in America in the 1770s, those types of persons stood on the sidelines, watching while the heroes of the day burned British ships and threw crates of tea into the Boston Harbor. When civil war was imminent in the late 1850s, those persons claimed that peace could somehow defeat Confederate hubris and slavery, watching while the patriots preserved the Union and effected the abolition of that aberrational institution.

Now, as an ever-augmenting State and an ever-shrinking political society plague our nation, there are those who acquiesce to a neutered political society, and those who demand an end to it. Among which, my friend, are you?