The Righteousness of the Powerless
The dominant political party imposes its will without adequate process and without considering the perspective of the minority party. The dominant team acquires the best player and its small market competitors never had a chance. The ascendant faith tradition embraces the worst of the worst to advance its political agenda, and dissenters are silenced or alienated.
These are times when the already powerful are on a roll. How do we respond to their use of power in what we consider to be wicked ways? We rage. We scream. We protest. We RESIST. But ultimately, the powerful still win because they have the power. Those of us without power are left to find comfort in the righteousness and purity of our positions. Opposition is easy, and that’s particularly true when the powerful have formed a tightly controlled coalition that actively repels all others. Our shield against our powerlessness is self righteousness.
To be clear, I am insufferably self righteous. But before you leap out of your chair to celebrate my self discovery, let me add that I’m not alone. If you care about politics, faith, or even sports, you too have almost certainly been the same at some point in your life. Power provides the opportunity for action, and powerlessness can only sustain belief. The path to action is often a morally dubious and ethically suspect one, filled with compromises and tradeoffs that wash away the comforting purity of belief. Therefore, the true measure of a human is whether he or she stays true to the beliefs stated in those moments of powerlessness when power returns.
President Obama took a great deal of criticism for his comments about hopelessness leading people to cling to their guns and religion, but as with so many political gaffes, it was forbidden that he say that because it was true. Of course, it was an oversimplification. Religion can and should be a guiding force far beyond those who lack power, but it’s a source of self righteousness for those who lack power. As are guns, but without the redeeming value of religion.
On that point, it’s shooting fish in a barrel to call out the religious right but you can’t write this essay without them being a focus. They impeached President Clinton (a man whose behavior deserves a serious reckoning, no doubt) over sexual misconduct but now show absolutely zero conscience about supporting the elevation of a man credibly accused of child molestation to the United States Senate. This just finishes the crust on the pie of moral rot that was baked by this movement through its support of Trump.
Also consider the commissioner in the political minority at a government agency who righteously and smarmily railed against the process used to reach every decision at that agency by the majority. However, once he gained power, his concern for process immediately evaporated and he imposed one of the biggest jokes of a process in the history of administrative agencies to ram through his wildly unpopular agenda. His loudly proclaimed love of the First Amendment went silent once the man who appointed him delivered an actual, imminent threat to that fundamental principle. Once he achieved power, the total emptiness and complete hypocrisy of his earlier self righteousness was revealed.
2017 has been a year of feeling powerless for me. Now, trust me, as a white male raised by a loving family who attended great schools, I understand at least some of the ample reserves of privilege that have worked to my advantage over the years. But even with all that privilege and advantage, I find myself feeling crushed. Everything feels like a fight against the powerful. It’s the old money couple selling me a house who try to extract every penny they can out of by exerting Machiavellian leverage. It’s the bank that imposes outrageously unfair fees on the end of my lease knowing I’m poorly positioned to fight them. It’s the Congress that raises my taxes on me to give even more to the rich and powerful, even though income inequality in this country has nearly reached the breaking point.
I am filled with self righteous fury. And there are only two paths I could go from here.
On one path, we regain power. Reasonable consumer protections are put back in place. Our tax system is made sane again for the middle class. Health care is treated as a right of everyone rather than a privilege of the wealthy. On that path, I will be tested. Will my beliefs in ethics, morality, and meaningful process remain steadfast when the path to action would point otherwise. What would I do if my party’s majority is imperiled and a truly repulsive candidate stands for election on my side of the aisle? Will I stoop to sham processes to ram through actions and allow the ends to justify means? It’s darn certain that the other side DESERVES that, but that doesn’t make it right.
On that point, President Obama deserves so much credit. He served for eight years, and he never surrendered his moral or ethical bearings. Somehow, power did not corrupt him. He respected process, even as Mitch McConnell and the snakes on the other side used his respect for norms to undermine his agenda. If the pendulum shifts again, President Obama’s example should always be the model for me and those who share my beliefs.
On the other path, the powerful are so effective at tightening the screws that power never shifts again. The ability to vote is further curtailed, the Census is politicized, the district maps grow ever more gerrymandered. In that scenario, the righteousness of a majority being treated as a minority could finally boil over. And I don’t want to think about that scenario any further.