The McNulty Memo (Monthly Musings on Faith and Public Life)
Editor’s note: This is the ninth in a series of articles looking at Christian faith in the public square. This is part of the Institute’s Center for Faith & Public Life initiative.
‘Tis the season. No, not for Santa. His time comes after the creepy skeletons are put away. It’s the season for bruising political campaigns. If you live in or near one of the many partisan battlegrounds, you are being inundated with negative television commercials. Political junkies insist that these so-called “attack ads” work, though given the present state of public trust in government, there isn’t much room to which negative opinion can sink.
If attack ads are effective, that’s all most candidates need to know. Because winning is the whole point, right? I mean, it’s certainly not about my ambitions, ahem … ahem; it’s about the success of our world-rescuing cause. If I prevail, we will finally fix [fill in the blank], so let’s throw everything we can at the other guy. And besides, he’s doing it to us.
If this sounds like the ends justifying the means, well, it is.
And as we know, the vilification of politicians doesn’t end on election day. It’s a year-round industry. From the Saturday Night Live cold opening (essentially a free political ad for the Democrats) to the nightly political talk programs, tearing down government officials is an American pastime. But it gets supercharged in the campaign season. Negative campaigns are now so common that they have simply become part of the political furniture. We just expect them.
Such complacency wasn’t the case 62 years ago. On a September night in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson ran a highly controversial attack ad against his GOP opponent, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. It quickly became known as the “Daisy” ad because it depicted a young girl pulling petals from a daisy followed by a countdown and mushroom cloud from an exploding nuclear bomb. The message was clear: a vote for Goldwater is a vote for destroying the world. This outrageous scare ad only ran once because of the negative public response. We can wonder what it would take for a campaign spot to be pulled today for crossing the lines of decency.
Which brings us to the question of faith and negative politics. How should Christians think about our toxic political ecosystem? The question must not be whether an attack gets votes, likes, followers, or television ratings. The question is how it squares with God’s truth.
Saint Peter urges Jesus’ followers to live above reproach, particularly in the face of opposition. He writes:
Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Pet 2:13-17)
The freedom Peter has in view is not freedom from moral constraints but freedom to follow the righteous moral path. The apostle Paul offers the same instruction. He says Christians should respect and honor government authorities and pray for them (Rom 13:7, 1 Tim 2:1-2). Though this teaching is foreign to our modern cynical ears, it is anchored in the Fifth Commandment. Honoring father and mother has long been understood as a command to honor all those in positions of authority, or “superiors,” to use outdated language.
Former Vice President Mike Pence wrestled with this issue more than 35 years ago. He lost a congressional election for the second time after what he describes as “one of the most divisive and negative campaigns in Indiana’s modern congressional history.” In a 1991 essay entitled, “Confessions of a Negative Campaigner,” he begins, true to form, with a humble acknowledgment of his own failure. He then insists, “Negative campaigning, I now know, is wrong.”
Recognizing the importance of wisely stewarding a campaign’s limited resources, Pence highlights three basic principles. First, a campaign should demonstrate the candidate’s “basic human decency.” Though legally free to attack one’s opponent, he cautions, “[Y]our First Amendment rights end at the tip of your opponent’s nose—even in the matter of political rhetoric.” Second, a campaign should be about big ideas that are more important that the individual candidate, and “ought to leave a legacy—a foundation of arguments—in favor of policies upon which their successors can build.” And third, “and very much last,” campaigns should strive to win.
Remembering that winning isn’t the most important thing would go a long way in addressing the problem. During the impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton, I worked closely with Henry Hyde, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the leader of the impeachment process. In the final months of 1998 and early 1999, public opinion decidedly shifted in favor of the president and against congressional Republicans. Political fortunes were clearly at risk. Believing deeply that lying under oath by a sitting president was unacceptable, Mr. Hyde said more than once, “There are some causes worth the loss of an election.”
Honoring civil authorities and those seeking political office does not mean unconditional surrender. Differences on the issues can and should be hashed out. Disqualifying personal conduct can be approached with graciousness, accuracy, and care, and not left simply to the attention-grabbing creativity of marketing consultants. And today’s candidates must answer, in a growing number of cases, for outrageous social media posts. Subject to the above principles, tweets are fair game.
More broadly, the last time I checked, politics is not an exception to the Golden Rule. The Sermon on the Mount is a rejection of ends-justifying-the-means ethics. Peter admonishes Christ’s followers to remember that we are sojourners in this world. Our conduct is to be so honorable that those who come to faith will glorify God for the good deeds they saw in us.
Wow, that’s a tall order. Talk about ruining a campaign manager’s day.