Minding the Flock

Perhaps my favorite political analogy is that of a Good Shepherd. I use it often, despite a general concern about casting people as "sheep," given the highly pejorative nature of the comparison. And this is mainly because, despite my misgivings, I have yet to hit upon a better analogy. And so if you've read Nobody in Particular for a while, I suspect that you won't be surprised that I'm about to invoke it again.

Most elected Republicans surely disagree with Trump’s actions. They dare not say so. They will try to pretend it never happened—as Don Draper says to Peggy Olson in Mad Men, “It will shock you how much it never happened.” But to the extent that the pretense cannot be sustained, they will have to find ways to condone or excuse Trump’s actions. Along the way, they’ll push the Republican Party toward becoming a self-consciously post-democratic party, a party that accepts antidemocratic and anti-constitutional methods to advance its goals and protect its supporters’ interests.

David Frum. "How Long Can This Continue?"

I understand Mr. Frum's point, but I disagree with the precise framing that he has adopted. I don't think that the Republican Party is concerned specifically with its goals and its supporters' interests. Rather, I think that they're acting our of what they understand to be common goals and the national interest. And not out of some willful self-delusion, but the simple and widespread habit that many people have of conflating their own interests with those of the people and or things that they feel responsible for. President Trump, back when he was still candidate Trump, famously trotted out a list of what he felt were problems with the United States and proclaimed "Only I can fix it."

And at the risk of coming across a broken record (albeit one with a very long cycle time), when someone comes to view themselves as essential to the well-being of another person or persons, they view what is best for themselves as also being in the direct interest of those they are looking after. To fall back on my Good Shepherd analogy yet again, a shepherd may be utterly convinced that sacrificing one or two of the animals in the flock to save themselves is the best thing for the flock. After all, where would they be without the shepherd? And so even if the shepherd aids themselves at the direct expense of their charges, the flock is still better off than it would be under the alternative. And it's worth noting that this isn't a new way of looking at the world:

A strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means.
Thomas Jefferson

And if democratic and constitutional methods of means, rather than ends, then they may be set aside in favor of better means. And if there is a danger in searching for a Good Shepherd, or in someone feeling that they have been elevated to the role, it lies there, in the idea that at some point, following the rules is an absurd sacrifice of the ends to the means. While it's common to view politicians as some sort of alternate species of lifeform, the fact is that they are drawn from the very public that the rest of us live in. When asked, in 2018, "Would you say [Opposing party] are a serious threat to the United States and its people, or wouldn’t you go that far?" about 70% of Republicans and 60% of Democrats said they either strongly or somewhat agreed that they would actually "go that far." And under such a circumstance, it's not surprising to find that people might express support for throwing the rulebook out of the window.

In this light, the problem isn't that Republicans are somehow willing to place their own interests above those of the nation, it's that they're losing sight of the idea that the nation will be okay without their efforts. And I suspect that Democrats are losing sight of that, too.