SUMMARY: As citizens, we have a right to expect our public officials to serve us impartially, without bias, prejudice, corruption, or interest. When a candidate, at any level, bluntly affirms that he or she will represent only part of his or her constituents, that candidate deserves neither election nor reelection. “We the people” deserve better than candidates who govern in a narrow partisan or group interest.
By: Paul S. Marchand
One of our presidential candidates recently gave a master class on how not to be a public servant.
As participants in a representative democracy, we have a not unreasonable expectation that those whom we elect to public office will make and keep a commitment to serve all of their constituents, not merely a favored few. So, when one of our presidential candidates essentially declares at a fundraiser for well-heeled donors that half of America is a bunch of dependent freeloaders, you know something is wrong in River City.
Never in recent American history has a presidential candidate so bluntly declared class war, or so bluntly declared his undivided allegiance to a particular socioeconomic group. Even George W. Bush’s now infamous declaration of pleasure at being among the “haves and have mores” now seems tame compared to what we heard out of the mouth of Mitt Romney.
The quondam Massachusetts governor’s comments have come in for justifiable criticism, even from his own party; when your own people question both your judgment and fitness for the office you seek, there is a kind of Nixon Goes to China credibility in their critique. It’s one thing for Democrats to have a field day on Mr. Romney’s unfortunate remarks, is quite another for the candidate to catch flak from the GOP. When even your own supporters are criticizing you for a campaign that appears motivated more by bias, prejudice, corruption, and interest than by serious concern for the country, something is very wrong.
As much as Mr. Romney seems to have forgotten that a closed mouth gathers no foot, he also seems to have forgotten that the public upon which he must necessarily depend if he is to reach the White House expects more from him than narrow allegiance to the wealthiest one percent of American society. You cannot govern a body politic if you are only willing to include half the membership. Defining forty-seven percent of the American public as undeserving mooches augurs ill for any candidate’s political future.
But as much as Mitt Romney’s ill considered remarks to a group of monied contributors represents a master class in how not to ask for money, it also reminds any candidate for political office, at any level, whether challenger or incumbent, that we had better be better than that.
Of course, it is always tempting to identify so completely with one’s base as to forget or ignore the existence of those constituents who are not necessarily a part of that base. Some years ago, as a relatively new council member in Cathedral City, I offhandedly remarked to the woman who is now the incumbent mayor that Cathedral City was half Latino. I shall never forget her response to me. In a voice dripping with scorn, she informed me that she “represent[ed] the other fifty percent.” To say that I was shocked that an elected public official would so openly display that kind of naked prejudice would be an understatement.
For what Willard M. Romney and the incumbent mayor of Cathedral City have either forgotten or simply don’t care about is that once an elected official takes office, he or she has an ironclad, non-delegable duty to represent every single constituent to the best of his or her ability. The true test of representation is not whether the constituent shares your views, shares your skin color, shares your sexuality, shares your religion, or shares your own socioeconomic class. If such an Old Cold Warrior Richard Nixon could go to China because doing so served the national interests of the entire United States, then it’s not unreasonable to demand that politicians at every level remember who they work for.
And when we demand that politicians at every level remember who they work for, we mean us, the constituents whose votes are the indispensable precondition to any politician getting elected. “We the people” deserve better than, and should never accept, elected officials who believe it is okay to govern in a narrow partisan or group interest. Politicians work for us, all of us, one hundred percent of us, and no politician is worthy of being elected or reelected who will not make an open and public avowal of his or her absolute and unqualified commitment to represent one hundred percent of the constituency one hundred percent of the time.
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Paul S. Marchand is an attorney who lives and works in Cathedral City, California. He served two terms on the city council there, and is seeking election to the Council this November. The views expressed herein are his own, and not necessarily those of any entity or organization with which he is associated.
