It is once again political season.
Because apparently we weren’t getting enough political advertising the other 11 months of the year.
And with political season comes the familiar soundtrack:
“I will fight for your rights!”
Republicans say it. Democrats say it. Independents probably say it too, although they may have to fight through the ballot-access rules just to get invited to the commercial.
At this point, I’m wondering:
Why does everyone have to fight?
Can we just do the job?
We already have enough actual violence in the world. We have wars, shootings, riots, conflicts and people arguing with strangers in Facebook comments as though they are personally defending the Constitution from the sofa.
So perhaps we could retire the word “fight” from political advertising for five minutes.
Especially when you’re not actually talking about fighting.
Let’s talk about rights.
A right is not something a politician personally hands you while standing in front of a flag and dramatically pointing toward the middle distance.
The Constitution establishes and protects certain rights and limits what government can do. Those protections are not supposed to depend upon whether your favorite politician happens to be holding office this Tuesday.
And no, not everything someone wants to do is automatically a constitutional right.
This is where the words rights and laws seem to get thrown into the political blender.
They are not the same thing.
A law is a rule created by government that operates within the constitutional framework. A constitutional right is a protection that government generally cannot simply decide to ignore because somebody had a bad Tuesday.
If something is unconstitutional, yelling, “But I have a right to do it!” does not magically make it constitutional.
And if something is legal, that doesn’t automatically make it a constitutional right.
Words matter.
Which brings me back to the word fight.
UPDATE: As I am literally writing this, one of the “I will fight for you in Harrisburg” commercials just came on.
Apparently Pennsylvania’s television advertising industry has decided to personally validate my argument.
Thank you, television.
Very efficient.
You don’t have to fight to represent people.
You can discuss.
You can advocate.
You can recommend.
You can champion.
You can negotiate.
You can work with others.
You can strive for change.
You can even use the terrifyingly radical phrase:
“I will try to get this done.”
Imagine that.
Politicians aren’t supposed to be professional fighters. They are supposed to be representatives.
Think about how ridiculous this would sound in the workplace.
Your manager walks into a meeting and says:
“Don’t worry, everybody. I’m going to fight upper management for you.”
That probably isn’t going to end with a productive discussion about next year’s budget.
It might end with Human Resources asking why there is a folding chair embedded in the conference-room wall.
Companies generally accomplish things through meetings, negotiation, research, compromise, planning and occasionally someone saying, “Okay, let’s see if we can make this work.”
Government could try that too.
Here’s the thing.
If you are elected to represent your community at the local, state or federal level, your job isn’t to spend four years telling everyone how hard you’re going to fight.
Your job is to do something.
Listen to your constituents.
Understand the issue.
Look at the facts.
Talk to people who disagree with you.
Draft legislation.
Challenge bad policies.
Defend constitutional protections.
Find solutions.
Build coalitions.
And then, wonderfully enough, get something accomplished.
That sounds a lot more useful than promising to enter political combat every time a camera turns on.
Nike had it right:
Just do it.
Don’t tell me you’re going to fight for me.
Represent me.
Don’t promise me political warfare.
Show me results.
Don’t tell me you’re going into battle.
Go into the meeting.
And if you genuinely want to fight, there is always the military.
They actually have uniforms for that.
