Editor’s Note: ‘No Comment’ is a column by Jesse Bernstein featuring perspectives on politics, culture and current events.
This past Friday, just a day after Pope Francis spoke before Congress, Speaker of the House John Boehner announced his intentions to resign his position and retire from Congress at the end of October. Superficially, it was a shocking move—a Speaker hasn’t willingly resigned the post mid-term since Tip O’Neill in 1987—but, really, the signs that this would come were always there.
Boehner’s tenure as speaker coincided with a period of popular American conservatism that was never going to gel with his political philosophy. Boehner, paraphrasing legendary Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes, recently described his idea of progress as, “Three years and a cloud of dust. It’s a slow, methodical process.” Today’s GOP, the GOP of the Tea Party, was never going to accept small victories and compromises. Which is their prerogative, of course—if getting everything you want as quickly as possible is your only definition of victory, then a man like Boehner, known for his pragmatism and dedication to compromise, is the antithesis of what you want in a leader. That increasingly louder and influential faction of the party has risen up against Boehner several times before, and the upcoming fight on defunding Planned Parenthood and shutting down the government was something he clearly wasn’t prepared to endure.
When the Republicans took the House back in 2010 during a midterm election in which they slaughtered the Democrats at every level of government, Boehner was the GOP’s unanimous choice for Speaker. A staunch conservative since he entered Congress, Boehner was well-respected in Washington, having served as both Minority and Majority leader during his tenure in Congress. But, that 2010 class that pushed him into power is what has ultimately pushed him out. His Washington standing meant little to freshmen representatives from conservative bastions, and the man who’d been a thorn in the side of the establishment was suddenly conflated with it. He publicly and privately feuded with members of party, last month at a fundraiser referring to Texas Senator Ted Cruz as a “jackass.” More recently, he referred to his colleagues (not by name) as “false prophets,” denouncing them as “unrealistic” and admonishing them for “[whipping] people into a frenzy believing they accomplish things they know—they know—are never going to happen.”
One of Boehner’s mortal sins was his relationship with President Obama. As much as he’s publically repudiated the Obama administration since the Democrat took office (indeed, their relationship has, at least publicly, been composed largely of attacks in recent years), he has worked tirelessly to try and hammer out deal after deal, often facing strong opposition from those who elected him. The two men have tried for years to work on what’s been referred to as the “grand bargain,” a simultaneous spending cut that would’ve coincided with tax increases. Ultimately, it never happened.
The 20th century has often been referred to as the age of extremes, but I dare anyone who holds that belief to watch an hour of today’s C-SPAN. Because we’re in it, right now. Ideologues have wrested control from the true practitioners of democracy, those who wish to find common ground, compromise and move forward. In today’s American political landscape, to deal with those with whom you disagree is to kowtow to the enemy.
There’s this trope in national politics today that people are declaring “war” on your ideas, and that, in spite of this “war,” nothing will convince you to waver from those ideas. Raucous applause will follow. How noble.
But, that is a bullshit faux-nobility. There is nothing noble in blindly serving an ideology; what’s noble and productive and ultimately worth applauding is recognizing that democracy can only work if you’re willing to compromise. Pragmatism—that’s the name of the game. It’s that faux-nobility that creates a proudly anti-intellectual candidate like Donald Trump, who’s turning himself into a martyr because he says what he believes, no matter how racist or misogynistic or xenophobic it is. It’s the same faux-nobility that allows Carly Fiorina to tell out-and-out lies about Planned Parenthood and then spout off about how she won’t be silenced.
Pope Francis, in his speech to Congress that preceded Boehner’s announcement, urged those in attendance to “guard against the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil” and to remember the importance of creating “a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life.” John Boehner heard that message, and, when he retires in a few weeks, I hope dearly that someone else, anyone else, has heard it as well.
Bernstein is a member of the class of 2018.
