McDonnell’s Patriotic Fervor
The governor delivered a mild but pointed reminder on Sunday that civility is part of the American way.
Virginians who watch what Gov. Bob McDonnell does more closely than they listen to what he says have no cause to doubt he is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, both fiscal and social.
Whether that gives cause to praise or criticize depends entirely on one’s political point of view.
McDonnell is not governor only of conservative Virginians, though, but of all Virginians. And it is at once heartening that he understands this and disheartening that the political tenor of the times prompted him on Sunday to give graduates of the University of Virginia and their loved ones a succinct reminder of what it is to be American.
Not Republican. Not Democratic. Not Libertarian or a tea partyer or a Green Party member. Just American.
McDonnell was the commencement speaker at Mr. Jefferson’s University. And amid the usual platitudes traditional to the occasion, he spoke directly to an intractable problem of these times: the hyper-partisanship that demonizes the opposition.
“As a Republican,” the governor said, “I believe deeply in the conservative principles of my party. And I know that Democrats believe strongly in the principles of their party.
“While it doesn’t get much coverage, the fact is there are very good people throughout government.
“So let’s make something clear.
“Neither political party has a monopoly on virtue or patriotism.
“Neither political party owns our flag.
“Neither political party cares more about America than the other.”
McDonnell was urging the new generation to a civility sadly lacking in politics.
What he didn’t say that also bears saying: Neither party has every answer to all of the nation’s problems.
At the extreme edges of partisan rhetoric, compromise is made out to be a character flaw, leaving the country ill equipped to settle other intractable problems that truly imperil the nation. Like the national debt.
Perhaps freshly minted graduates of Mr. Jefferson’s University don’t need reminding, but from time to time most of the rest of us do: An essential tenet of representative democracy is that there is strength in the competition of ideas.
Political adversaries are not enemies of the state.
People who believe passionately in certain principles of governance should and do defend them vigorously. But taking a stand and holding it without question is not a matter of honor but of hubris.
Whoever first said that politics is a blood sport recognized an immutable truth: Total victory requires that one side vanquish the other.
To govern a representative democracy, though, takes compromise and cooperation — if governing well is the objective.
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