Richard Haass thinks so. I’m reading his book, The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens. Here’s what he says:
Americans are required to observe the law, pay taxes, serve on juries, and respond to a military draft if there is one. There is no wiggle room…Obligations are different, involving not what citizens must do but what they should do….They are intended to be greater than responsibilities.
So here are five of Haass’s proposed obligations:
1) Be informed. Thomas Jefferson said, “Wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government.” We need to be informed in order to make wise choices when we vote. We need to hold elected officials accountable—-reelection must be earned.
2) Get involved. We must all participate. The only reason elected officials have power is because we give it to them. If we don’t get involved, then only the most passionate of activists on either side will make the decisions for us. Haass quotes former Secretary of Defense James Mattis: “The impact of participation trickles up. Rosa Parks didn’t start out by taking on all of Jim Crow; she started out by taking a seat on a local bus.”
3) Stay Open to Compromise. Haass wonders when ‘compromise’ became a nasty word. Many elected officials now refuse to compromise, which is sad and totally counter to democracy. Without compromise, the United States would never have been formed. Alexander Hamilton said:
The compacts which are to embrace thirteen distinct states in a common bond of amity and union must as necessarily be a compromise of as many dissimilar interests and inclinations.
4) Remain civil. JFK: “Civility is not a sign of weakness.” George W. Bush: “Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment; it is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos.” (Good lord, this is what the Trump years have done to me…I’m now quoting George W as a voice of reason. We truly are living in the Upside Down.)
Haass writes “There is nothing civil about trying to silence those with whom you disagree.” I think Ron DeSantis needs to read Haass’ book.
5) Reject violence. This would seem to be obvious, but I can’t help but think about the conservative right getting its shorts in a bundle over ‘antifa’ protests, as if blacks are the only violent ones. Yet if you study the last two hundred years you will find hundreds of examples of white mobs attacking immigrants or blacks. White violence is very common; January 6 was just the most recent. Haass writes that the Republican National Committee called January 6 ‘legitimate political discourse.’ Huh.
Haass advocates working within the system to bring about change, using civil disobedience or nonviolent political action or protests.
As for me, I believe violence comes from the fury and fear whipped up by elected officials. We need to be informed and get involved by voting those officials out of office.
I’ll share the last five obligations next week.
3 Responses
These are great and I wonder if anyone on the right would ever even try to use them? I think they know if everyone follows #1 they will loose. I just wish we would all Reject Violence. I’m so tired of another mass shooting every week.
The far right, probably not. They believe their rights are more important than yours or mine. But there must be moderate Republicans and independents still able to reason and who are willing to work with us to support democracy.
I have found that a lot of the moderate Republicans no longer consider themselves part of the GOP. They have moved to independent. The GOP is shrinking because they are not listening to their own constituents, which is a good thing for us. They need to keep shrinking