A Critic in Every Corner

Seeing the mild (by today’s standards) kerfuffle in last week’s Conservative Truth over the meaning of “truth” brought to mind the famous Theodore Roosevelt quote about the “man in the arena.”

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

The point of this quote being, in my opinion, how much easier it is to sit on the sidelines and critique someone else’s performance than to participate in the same activity on one’s own and risk failure.

Last week, millions watched the U.S. Open golfing championship as Rory McIlroy, a fan favorite, missed two short putts in the last few holes to cost himself the winner’s trophy. One reason McIlroy has such a loyal following is that through the years of a great golfing career, he’s always been a class act, whether in victory or defeat. However, this latest loss stung badly enough that McIlroy packed up and left immediately when he knew he’d lost, instead of staying around for the inevitable media grilling about his failure, yet again, to win a major golf title that has eluded him for 10 years now. My first thought was, who can blame him? As much as I’ve criticized the younger generations for being so thin-skinned at times, I’m recognizing that many of the sound-bite makers, headline crafters, and keyboard warriors have something in common – they take great delight in another’s misfortune. And for those who do this for a living, the realization that there’s money to be made from broadcasting the misfortunes of another, especially someone with celebrity status, is just an added bonus.

It's a sad commentary on our modern culture that the prevailing “wisdom” apparently is so jaded and cynical. A question often asked these days is, “Why aren’t more good people running for office?” I think the answer is simple – few want to endure what Rush Limbaugh called the “anal exam” of today’s media coverage regarding conservative-leaning candidates in particular. And I’m not just referring to the national media. Local outlets, especially in blue areas, have caught the same virus and treat their right-leaning candidates in much the same manner. Thus, when my podcast friend Jesse Kelly recommends that we conservatives need to start changing things at the local level by getting involved in school boards, city councils, etc., he’s fully aware of the flak that may be taken for doing so and why it takes courage to put oneself out there.

It seems we live in a time when legions of people have their critical antennae up at all times, waiting for opportunities to pounce. This is what happens when people have, as their default mode, the assumption that the person or people with whom they disagree is/are inherently bad, clueless, ill-intended, etc. And I certainly don’t exclude myself from guilt in this area. The question is, what can we do to stop or at least slow this avalanche of criticism and disrespect that has taken over our national discourse?

To get a reading on how far this problem has spiraled, I took a trip down memory lane to the Bill Clinton impeachment saga. One figure that stood out to me as a dignified presence was Rep. Henry Hyde, R-IL, who served as the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee during the Clinton impeachment investigation. From what I could tell in watching him conduct the various meetings and interviews, Hyde was the picture of calm in the middle of a tempest and appeared to have the respect of members from both parties, due in large measure to the mutual respect he gave them. In short, he was the adult in the room when one was otherwise sorely lacking. It turned out however that, in the heated political climate of 1998, some liberal journalist wanting to make a name for himself dug up evidence of an extramarital affair from 30 years before, which Hyde admitted to while insisting that ancient history had no bearing on the current investigation or his conduct of it. He was the epitome of firmness and fairness at a time when the country desperately needed it. And the Washington Post article that discussed the disclosure of Hyde’s decades-old affair was surprisingly fair and balanced – at least by comparison to the leftist paper it’s now become.

In sum, it’s up to us the citizens and voters to demand better of our leaders, and to do that, we may need to climb into the arena and risk getting a little bloodied. And it’s wishful thinking to believe that Donald Trump’s eventual passing from the political scene is all it will take to restore more civilized behavior in our politicians. After all, they are only a reflection of the broader culture we live in today, so it’s up to each of us to pull back on the reflexive criticism and focus on respecting each other. That’s a start, anyway.