It’s not wrong to have ideals.
It’s not wrong to want every person and every thing to
function as intended and to operate to its maximum efficiency. It’s not wrong
to want people to be the best they can be… to be honest and decent and live up
to their own ideals.
It’s not wrong to want these things; it’s only wrong to be naïve enough to expect them.
I have a friend who paid a contractor a lot of money to put
a new roof on her house. She had a right to want the job to be completed
properly, but some time after they had finished, she discovered that the new
roof leaked. Now she is paying another contractor a lot of money to do the job
all over again. This is not ideal.
I, myself, hired painters to repaint my 1970s-era house. I
had a right to want them to do a professional job. The first thing they did was
power-wash the imitation wood siding, causing it to swell, buckle, crack and
fall away in chunks. They had to patch up the damage the best they could and then paint over it, so that now my house looks like it has a bad case of acne. It’s
just acne of a different color. This is not ideal.
I tried to get them to come back (they have refused), but
really, what’s the point? Clearly, they’re not qualified to do the job I wanted
done, and, clearly, they don’t share my ideals.
Honesty is one of my ideals. It’s a trait I value highly. I
want everybody to be honest, but I’m not naïve enough to expect it. I once came
home from a fast food restaurant and realized the clerk at the drive-up window had
given me $1 too much in change. I drove back to the place to return it, but I’m
fairly certain the person I gave it to stuck it in his own pocket.
Just yesterday I
bought several items at CVS and was charged $29 and change. As I was walking
out, I realized that one of the items alone was priced at $44, so I went back
and told the clerk she undercharged me. Turns out that one item didn’t scan, so
she rang me up again. For my honesty, she said, she gave me 25% off the price.
Here’s where I’m going with this (thank goodness he’s
finally getting somewhere):
As I’ve stated here before, I’m re-watching the TV show “The
West Wing” about the liberal Democratic presidency of Josiah Bartlet and his
staff. The show ran from 1999-2006 and portrayed the kind of White House that every
American deserves. I’m into Season 2 right now.
President Bartlet and his aides are portrayed as decent, honest
civil servants who care about people, believe in the Constitution and work tirelessly to make the country a
better place for all Americans. They're not perfect and they make mistakes,
but they also are not in politics to feed their egos or to build a brand or to make
a profit on outside businesses or to get revenge on a former president who
embarrassed them once at a dinner.
They are not pathological liars, their facts are actual
facts, they respect the other two branches of government and they treat the
media the way the First Amendment intended. None of them appears to be insane,
and most of all, the TV president doesn’t re-live his election victory every
chance he gets, nor is he holding rallies and continually running for
re-election after spending little more than three months in office.
So I look at the Bartlet “presidency” and I see an ideal. It’s
not wrong to think that way, because I’m also not naïve enough to think that any
White House has ever operated this ideally, from George Washington right up to
the alternative president who sits in the Oval Office today. I’m also able to distinguish
between a TV show and reality, so I’m not naïve enough to expect it.
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