A Few Minutes with the Mayor – March 2015

Are you troubled by the political discord today? I am! Not that it is anything new. It is as old as the art of politics. History bears that out. I remember the hatred directed at President Harry Truman. It was intense, personal, and vicious… especially after he fired General Douglas MacArthur for gross insubordination. Though it was the greatest reaffirmation of our founding fathers’ concept of a democratic society, it led to his withdrawal from politics after he realized he would never be able to win the 1952 Presidential election. Dwight Eisenhower’s campaign slogan, “Korea, Communism and Corruption” added only more invective against Truman. Today Truman is one of the most highly-regarded Presidents of the Twentieth Century. So much for political invective!

I recently saw a film, A Stranger in Town, starring Frank Morgan as a Supreme Court justice who gets caught-up in a move to clear a small town of corruption in government. Its memory stayed with me because of a speech he makes at the end. Here is part of it.

“Like all of you here, I am a citizen of this country.

That is no little honor. Men have fought revolutions, have died to be called citizens, and as citizens we carry a burning responsibility.

It means that when we elect men to public office we cannot do it as lightly as we flip a coin…

“…the great liberties by which we live have been bought with blood. The kind of government we get is the kind of government we want. Government of the people, by the people and for the people can mean any kind of government. It’s our duty to make it mean only one kind… uncorrupted … free… united.”

It’s unquestionably the greatest speech ever written for Frank Morgan, an actor who seems remembered today only as the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz. I especially like the statement, “The kind of government we get is the kind of government we want.” His dictum is clear. We can aim high or we can aim low. The choice is ours.

Nowhere in his speech does he suggest we use invective to succeed in politics. The whole point of invective is to incite emotion, to insure that when you vote you don’t explore the facts. That fits with those who vote the straight party line. Where was it taught in school to put party above country? Wherever they learned it, it must have been some class considering the way our elected representatives behave at the state and national levels.

Or take the statement, “when we elect men to public office we cannot do it as lightly as we flip a coin.” Evidently Oregon’s voters did when an ethics scandal tied to energy policy consulting work performed by Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber’s fiancée was revealed before the last election. The voters ignored the news and re-elected him to a fourth term. How many of those votes were cast by a party first—country second mentality. Now the mess is getting worse with calls for him to resign from no less than,The Oregonian, formerly one of his strong supporters.

Our citizens are constantly describing how happy they are to be living in Jacksonville. They love the history brought to life every October with “Meet the Pioneers” in the Cemetery presentation. They love the small-town atmosphere, a rapidly disappearing sight in much of America. They love the friendly smiles and greetings from one another… sometimes from strangers on the sidewalk. Adding to all this is the remarkable collection of the quaint, century-old brick buildings… the large number of fine restaurants… the Britt concerts in the summertime… the winery tours… and more. There is something else: in terms of local government, there are no party politics. When citizens visit me in my office, I have no idea of whether they are liberal or conservative, Democrat, Republican, or Independent. There is no party hack telling us what to say or do. We may agree or disagree, but we listen to each other. We may even have misunderstandings about each other’s position on some issue, but we don’t call one another names or slander each other. Personally, I find this a blessing.

The early Twentieth Century humorist Will Rogers once said, “In Washington they just generally figure that one hatred offsets the other and they are both even.” I’m glad I live in Jacksonville!

Featured image is of Will Rogers, 1922