Written for our day

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about 3 Nephi 7:2-7 which reads as follows:

And the people were divided one against another; and they did separate one from another into tribes, every man according to his family and his kindred and friends; and thus they did destroy the government of the land.  And every tribe did appoint a chief or a leader over them; and thus they became tribes and leaders of tribes.  Now behold, there was no man among them save he had much family and many kindreds and friends; therefore their tribes became exceedingly great.

Now all this was done, and there were no wars as yet among them; and all this iniquity had come upon the people because they did yield themselves unto the power of Satan.

And the regulations of the government were destroyed, because of the secret combination of the friends and kindreds of those who murdered the prophets.  And they did cause a great contention in the land, insomuch that the more righteous part of the people had nearly all become wicked; yea, there were but few righteous men among them.

Now, I’m a serious, serious political conservative.  I have been for a long time.  It will mean something to a few out there to say, again, that I’ve spent time in the company of Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, George Stigler, and Friedrich von Hayek (conservative/libertarian Nobel laureates in economics, all of them), and Murray Rothbard; that I helped to host William F. Buckley Jr. at BYU; that I’ve subscribed to National Review with very few breaks since I was thirteen; that I’ve spoken several times at the huge annual libertarian gathering called FreedomFest; that I literally voted for Barry Goldwater for president years before I was legally eligible to do so (because my brother took me into the polling booth and allowed me to pull the lever; our parents voted for Lyndon Johnson); that, with a friend, I had lunch with Mike Lee to discuss his possible bid for the United States Senate; that I’ve had dinner with Senator Rand Paul; and so on and so forth.  I mention these things so that none will accuse me of being a faux conservative for what I’m about to say.

I have watched with real concern as American society has divided itself up into aggrieved tribes, each demonizing the other, regarding the other as morally depraved and the embodiment of evil, unwilling to compromise, punishing those who do attempt to compromise.

I understand that some politicians genuinely are evil.  Hitler certainly was, as was Mussolini.  Hillary Clinton isn’t in their league, obviously, but I do see her as not merely wrong on policy issues but, more fundamentally, cynical and corrupt.  And Donald Trump, in my view, is a nationalist authoritarian demagogue, a crassly vulgar statist of no discernible principle who is, moreover, personally amoral.

However, most politicians, left and right, are flawed but decent people, trying to do their best.  And, in a democratic republic such as ours, it’s useful to have opposing parties, because they can often see and point out flaws even in policy proposals that we like.  Furthermore, there simply isn’t a national consensus to do some of the things that my side (or the other side) would like to do.  And the nature of our country, constitutional prescribed and illustrated throughout our history, is compromise.  Not on fundamental principles, but on practical and temporary measures.

I understand that one can compromise too much.  I know what “selling out” means.

But to absolutely refuse to compromise at all is, effectively, to engage in a kind of holy war.

The results of such refusal to reach accommodation with each other can be seen in American history between 1861 and 1865.   Many people died because of it.  Cities were destroyed and wealth squandered.  And — someday I’ll expand upon this — the nature of American governance was permanently changed, and not for the good.  The states ceded a great deal of power to the central government in Washington DC, and they never got it back.  Federalism took a body blow from which it hasn’t recovered, and probably won’t recover.

Perhaps we should study the history of the Nephites for even more than spiritual and theological lessons.

Posted from Richmond, Virginia