Political Values
What is the most important political value you should hold?
Arguing about politics is great sport. It gives ordinary folks who have no political power feel like they’re in the arena. And if only those stupid politicians would listen to us the country would be saved.
The underlying truth from political debates among family and friends is that it usually doesn’t go anywhere productive. Part of the problem is an unwillingness to change our minds. And also to get more involved.
As citizens of a republic, we get to vote in elections. This is the primary way the average person exercises their political power. For example, 67% of adults voted in the 2020 Presidential election. And voting is not to be scoffed at, but one vote in a very democratic state like California or a very republican state like Wyoming is statistically less impactful.
Voting, plus other forms of political activity — from protesting to campaigning for your candidate — highlights the importance of making clear political value judgments.
When we vote for one candidate over another we are stating I value Joe Biden over Donald Trump. Many people then complain that they don’t like either candidate. And I agree that candidates in their 70s are too young and people in their 80s and 90s have so much to offer the White House. Alas, ageism strikes again. More seriously, the choice between two candidates can seem like no choice at all.
Two possible solutions:
1)Political reform of the primary process. Andrew Yang recently talked with Sam Harris on his Making Sense Podcast that if you had open primaries you could get more centrist candidates. When the primaries are separated by Republicans and Democrats you have primaries that skew towards the extreme of the parties.
2) A more engaged and open-minded citizenry from the local to the state to the federal level. Important that’s in that order. The average person should be most aware of issues that most impact them. Like local education, crime, and the economy. But advertising dollars go strongly towards national media rather than state and local. Individuals can change this with better attention on the local and media outlets with better quality news. On the open-minded front, when we look initially past party and ideology and first see a human being who is doing a courageous and difficult thing in running for office this dramatically shifts our perspectives. We can see a candidate’s character and promise more clearly. While also realizing they may be doing questionable or downright immoral things to win election.
All of this is to say that voting explicitly and implicitly comes with a value judgment. And this post is primarily about how we should think better about forming our political values. And our day-to-day choices are also implicit political actions. Where we choose to live and work is implicitly a political value judgment. Living in Austin, Texas, or Arlington, Virginia is a vote for those places’ social, economic, and political systems over the other places we could choose to live. This doesn’t mean that you agree with everything that goes on there though.
Every person is a complex mix of values and actions. We all have to prioritize things. I choose to be a teacher because those who can’t do teach. I choose not to be a lawyer because I have a conscience. (Self-deprecation and lawyer jokes are always funny.)
In politics, how we think through value judgments is not simple. The real world is a complex place. A great starting point for forming our political values though is freedom. Without the freedom to marry, choose our jobs, our religion, and speech we are living in a totalitarian state. Where we can promote more freedom and not at the expense of others’ freedom should be one of our top priorities.
As far as I know, no politician is explicitly campaigning on zero freedom, unless you live in North Korea. But how does freedom map onto the most important U.S. political issues of today? In a recent Gallup poll, the three highest-rated issues were Coronavirus, the government/poor leadership, and a tie between immigration and unifying the country. The next closest was the economy in general. All of these are related to freedom, even if this is an abstract way of thinking about those issues.
And these are all important issues — even if I would argue that the economy should be higher than fourth. As the freedom to have a meaningful well-paying job is the foundation of a thriving and connected society.
The next question is what is the best way to solve these problems? And in a republic, the answer leads to the people in legislative and executive positions, but also in the private sector who have agency too. Whether the solution is best done by government or private business, varies by issue. And for most of our complicated issues, there should be a form of partnership. Like it was throughout a lot of U.S. history, the canals and railroads in the 19th century are two prime examples.
Solving our biggest problems means thinking carefully through our political priorities. No government can do everything equally well. No budget is infinite, nor should it be. If you are one of those people who look first at the poor leadership of the government you need to first look inward. Because we can only truly control our own actions. And a lot of times we get the leaders we deserve based on our level of engagement and knowledge.
To get better leaders we also need to be less partisan. If we believe a representative of one party is automatically the devil and represents the extremes then we will get bad leaders. The average politician is not an evil person, but someone following the incentives of election and reelection first and foremost. And that doesn’t lead to the common-sense centrist solutions the average person wants. But if we as citizens look at our political values from the point of view of tolerance for differing values then we can get closer to the compromises that make our democracy work. Our federalist and separation of powers political system are designed to be slow. From the beginning of the U.S. Virginia had different interests than Massachusetts. Today people living in urban areas and rural areas have different interests. We need to become more understanding and empathetic of these cultural and economic differences. Empathy, diversity, and open-mindedness are important political values in themselves.
This doesn’t mean we all have to agree on tax and climate change policy. But we should think carefully about what is most important to us and then vote on that. And that will mean not voting for a specific party each election.
If we use the value of freedom as a starting point it can broaden our opinion on important issues. Freedom can mean low taxes so people have more choice over how to spend their money for themselves and their families. But it can also mean higher taxes to fund public services like the fire department and parks that make our society safer and better. In education, it can mean vouchers for school choice or hiring better teachers in public schools, to give every child a better chance at a great education. When we reframe these issues around freedom and diversity of perspectives we can get closer to compromise and win-win solutions. Whatever you think is the most intractable vitriolic political issue there may be no compromise among some people. But the average person, the majority, believes in respecting differences of opinion and working to find a middle-ground.
If we think about political values from the standpoint of freedom first and partisan ideologies much later, we will get closer to building a more equitable society. Where opportunities are more widely available for everyone. And strong and diverse communities can come together and flourish.
