Good citizenship, properly applied, must demand accountability from every person, from political elite, “self-elected” nomenklatura, to the common Joe and Josephine in the street: everyone. But in demanding–and holding firm to that demand–accountability, we’re going to hear a lot of pigs squealing, skewered by accountability:
In trying to resurrect conservatism and the Republican party, I fear there’s a whole segment of our country we can never reach. These people, whether rich or poor, are not our natural constituents. These are the people to whom things are owed.
We saw it after the Katrina debacle, at the other end of the socioeconomic scale: “Why are you so slow to help us? Where is our money and food? Why haven’t you been here, government, rebuilding my house? I know my rights, and my rights include welfare, subsidies, support, and attention. We’re not to be treated like those victims of tornadoes in the Midwest who pull themselves together, help their friends, patrol their communities, and rebuild their neighborhoods. No, life is supposed to be easy, big and easy; why aren’t you here right now with the support I deserve?” And we hear it from the fat financial community who want the bailout check left at their door while they go on rich retreats to celebrate their good fortune.
This, by the way, is why Sarah Palin was so refreshing and, to be clear, so exotic to all the elites: a woman who could raise herself up by dint of hard work and self-sacrifice to be a wife, mother, mayor, and governor. She didn’t do it by set-asides, by birth, by quotas, or by handouts. She did it as a woman and she did it by her efforts. She exemplified what we all once saw as America—a land of opportunity, where you could be anything you set your mind to be so long as you worked for it. She showed us something about both her character and ours, our old-fashioned American character. For all this, she had to be ridiculed—she represented a kind of American virtue that shames the privileged, whether they be rich or poor.
Shame the privileged. A worthy goal. How? B y demanding accountability from our political (and bureaucratic) elites and by quietly, firmly, consistently emphasizing our differences to both the statists of the Left and the statists of the Right (most often found among the country club repugnican’ts now in power in the Republican Party).
In the second chapter of I Peter, the apostle charged first century Christians to make a positive impact on the world around them with their alien character:
1 Peter 2:11–Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 1 Peter 2:11-12 [emphasis added]
Now, while I’d urge Christians to follow that injunction, I’d also urge all good citizens of whatever religious persuasion (and by “religious” I also include atheists, no matter how silly they might be in denying that their belief system is a religion) to emulate the principle ennunciated by Peter: be good examples to those around you. Express your God-given rights (yes, God even gives rights to atheists) and liberties in such a way as to shame your fellow citizens (those few who have any ability to feel shame left) into honoring truth, seeking justice, examining mercy and voting knowledgeably and wittingly for these principles the next time they go to the polls.
Shame the privileged. The rich privileged and the poor privileged. The privileged politician and the privileged bureaucrat. Whoever and wherever they may be: shame them by your life, lived well.
Trackposted to Rosemary’s News and Ideas, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, and A Newt One, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.