Civic Virtue Is Not Dead Yet

Civil virtue in the US is not dead yet, although I am far from ready to say that it's getting better.

So what is civic virtue?  Generally speaking, it is the ability to put the general good above one's personal interests.  Country above party is what people usually speak of, although putting party above self can be civic virtue, as can any sort of public spirit.

And here is the thing. Civic virtue is one of those things that you never appreciate until it is gone.  It loses its effectiveness the minute anyone becomes aware of it and is only truly effective if everyone simply takes it for granted and never gives it a second thought.

And the US has -- and has traditionally had -- quite of bit of it, in various forms.  

Back in the golden days of blogs, someone wrote asking non-American readers what makes Americans unusual.  And one of the most common answers was that Americans have remarkable respect for private property.  Restaurants leave condiments sitting on the table and they don't get swiped. Stores put supplies of pumpkins and firewood out in front and people took them inside to pay.*  Self-checkout means placing a great deal of trust in customers.  Indeed, one of my law school books commented, stores used to keep all merchandize behind a counter.  The invention of open shelves for customers is itself a considerable show of trust (and, it must be admitted, of wealth).

That is civic virtue.  And it is best that we are not aware of it, or we would be insufferable.

Our civic virtue extends into the political realm.  Before Donald Trump came along, politicians who lost elections routinely conceded defeat and acted gracious for at least one day.  And they acceded to the rules, even when the rules did not operate in their interest.  One can question the wisdom of electing vote-counting officials, such as county clerks and secretaries of state, but they did count votes honestly.  

Trump's fake elector scheme has been compared unfavorably to rival slates of electors in Hawaii, 1960.  In Hawaii, 1960, the vote was too close to call.  Nixon appeared to be winning over Kennedy by a little more than 100 votes.  However, the Kennedy campaign called for a recount, and litigation ensued.  Republican and Democratic electors each cast votes, intending the votes to go to the ultimate winner when one was declared. And, as it happened, Kennedy was ultimately declared the winner, the Democratic electoral voters were certified, and Nixon, then Vice President, duly certified the votes and a Kennedy win.

Mike Pence has explained that in presiding over Congress counting votes, he was greatly influenced by the 2000 election. Pence had just been sworn in to his first term in Congress when the 2000 election came up for certification. Al Gore, also serving as Vice President, had fought a bitterly contested election in Florida that fell within a few hundred votes and was extensively litigated until the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bush. Gore went on to preside over the vote count and find in favor of Bush.

And, for that matter, at Trump's second impeachment trial, his lawyers showed footage of the certification of the 2016 election.  Various Democrats protested certification, and then-Vice President Joe Biden gaveled them down as out of order.

And here is the thing. No one saw any of those as heroic displays of civic virtue.  They were simply what Vice Presidents did.  Now when we look at people like Rusty Bowers, Brad Raffensperger, Brian Kemp, or Ruby Freeman facing immense political pressure, and harassment and threats, even at their own homes, simply for doing their jobs, what was once taken for granted has now become heroic civic virtue.

That being said, civic virtue is not yet dead in this country.  After Trump contested the 2020 election, I greatly feared that Republicans in general would follow his lead.  They have pleasantly surprised me since, and the precedent appears to be established that candidates not named Trump, running for offices other than President, will accept unfavorable outcomes.

And we have seen civic virtue above and beyond that. House Republicans undermined their already razor-thin majority by expelling George Santos.** Republican Secretaries of State have joined forces to promote confidence in elections.  When the Biden campaign was in danger of missing a filing deadline, the Alabama Legislature unanimously changed law to let Biden on ballot.***

Thus far we have not seen a post-Trump Republican run for President and lose, so we do not know what the outcome would be.  But on the whole, it is way too premature to give up hope on this country, so long as Trump is not in the picture.

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*Another commenter remarked that these things are large, heavy, and cheap -- difficult to steal and not much of a loss if stolen.  But the fact remains that most customers take these things inside to pay.
**Some people have argued that House Republicans do not deserve credit and were simply expelling Santos because he had become a political liability.  But that simply means that House Republicans were convinced that civic virtue was not dead in the general public.
***Cynics might call this an empty gesture of magnanimity, since Biden has no chance of winning Alabama anyhow.  But even empty gestures are worth something.