When I was teaching history and politics, many years ago now, I used to pontificate about the genius of American politics being its locus somewhere in the center of the political spectrum. American politics could not be defined as either left or right, radical or reactionary. In short, our politics eschewed the extremes and was not particularly ideological even though we generally called ourselves liberal or conservative.
Part of this I attributed to the two party system which had emerged from the early national years. Unlike the Europeans, we did not develop multiple parties that led to the need for coalition government. Rather than holding hard-defined ideas we frequently entertained conflicting ideas within one party resulting in compromise or moderate policies. Both parties – ultimately Democrats vs. Republicans – were, essentially, centrist, existing in the center of the political spectrum, to the left or right but not too far either way. When third parties pushed viable ideas they were embraced by one or both of the major parties to be eventually accepted by the electorate. And when socialist or authoritarian movements arose they never gained traction.
The road to the center was sometimes rough, to be sure. Early on, the Federalists feinted toward secession and later, of course, the nation suffered the civil war because of the breakdown of the party system. Still, over our history, we always managed to come together for the good of the nation without demonizing or alienating the opposition.
Looking back, the reason sanity held and centrist politics prevailed is because our leaders, however reluctantly, always did the right thing. They stood behind the Constitution, believed strongly in the sanctity of the law, closed ranks when faced with foreign threats and were tolerant of individual differences, including religion, ethnic origin and cultural affinities.
Interestingly, my faith in the United States I know rested on my respect for the Constitution and confidence in the courts and our legal system. Above all, I believed that our system of government with three well-defined branches and the so-called checks and balances would continue to serve us well. And I had respect for elected or appointed officials from the local police to the president and those who represented us in Congress. For most of my life what I had learned in 8th grade civics worked.
Now I know I have been wrong in much of this. The unvarnished truth is that our government – any government – is only as good as the leaders who have their hands on the levers of power. No constitution, no court system or law will prevent rogue or malevolent leaders from subverting the system.
This, I’m afraid, is where we are today!