Trust

The beating heart of democracy is not freedom. Experience shows us that freedom is a malleable concept that can become a pawn in a zero-sum game. A woman’s freedom to choose whether to bear her child impedes the child’s freedom to live. A white man’s freedom to choose his friends, associates and customers can diminish a black man’s freedom to live and do what he wants. Increasing the total amount of productive freedom is the mission of a democracy, but not its heart.

Its heart is trust. The theory that the best government is government for the people, by the people relies on the belief that Americans can be trusted to determine their own fate without recklessly harming and exploiting others. A representative democracy, like ours, asserts that the people will choose representatives who will govern wisely, responsible, and selflessly—representatives who can be trusted. And representatives who can be trusted must, by necessity, be capable of trust. They must trust the people who elected them to be sufficiently informed, civically responsible and wise to accept difficult decisions made for the good of the nation as a whole, even if they represent sacrifices for particular voters or voting blocks. They must trust their colleagues in government to share their dedication and willingness to work for the best interests of the nation rather than narrow self-interest. They must trust their leaders, without whom they will devolve into an ineffective, bickering mob. Most of all, they must trust the system of democracy that they serve.

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Ted Stevens, Republican Icon

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was just indicted, and it is pretty hard to see how he’s going to avoid jail time. If this surprises you even a little, you don’t know the career of Senator Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, and a Machiavellian to the core.

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