Many Americans seem to believe that our nation is declining and in danger of failure.  I don’t think that facts justify that belief.  For example, did you know that the number of law enforcement officers killed as a result of crimes peaked at 134 in the year 1973?  By 2015 it had declined to 46, about one-third of the peak number.  Any killing is one too many but failure to notice improvement encourages unsubstantiated beliefs that our nation is declining. Why are we losing our self-confidence and self-respect when objectively we are making progress?

I recently read a relevant commentary by Lee Hamilton, a retired congressman that I’ve admired for many years.  He represented my conservative Southern Indiana hometown as a Democrat from 1965 through 1999 then served as co-chair of the 9/11 Commission after his retirement.

During Hamilton’s years in congress the issues faced by voters and elected officials were arguably even more contentious and vexing than the ones we face today: voting rights act, Vietnam War, school desegregation and busing, proliferation of nuclear weapons, cold war, creation of Medicare and Medicaid, impeachment and resignation of President Nixon, Equal Rights Amendment, Roe vs Wade decision, and assassination of civil rights and political leaders.

Why did conservative, predominantly rural and white Southern Indiana continue to send a moderate Democrat to Washington for so many years?  After reading his May, 2017 column, I remember why so many of us, Democrats and Republicans, voted for him.  He believed in the perseverance of his constituents; believed in American institutions; and worked honestly to improve those institutions for citizens.

Hamilton opened his comments this way, “I’ve had a number of conversations recently that convince me our country is divided into two political camps separated by a deep and uncomfortably wide gap. No, I’m not talking about liberals and conservatives, or pro- and anti-Trump voters. I’m talking about people who believe in politics and our political system, and people who don’t.”

He points to distrust of institutions and elected officials; popular belief that they are unable or unwilling to solve national problems or help individuals; the excessive influence of big money on policy making, and belief that elected officials are working for personal gain rather than for the public good as subjective reasons why Americans are losing confidence in the nation.

Hamilton makes the case that politics is a worthy profession and urges us to participate.  Rather than a struggle between good and evil, he points to politics as “…our opportunity to help our neighbors, to give us better schools and hospitals and highways, to make our communities safer and more orderly. It’s a means of resolving our differences through dialogue and compromise, rather than through ideological battle or pitched warfare. If you pay attention, you’ll see a lot of politicians who go about their business intelligently, quietly, and competently — and who get good things done.”

We can find many flaws and failures in American history, but if you look at how we developed from thirteen fragile colonies to the USA of today two things are apparent.  One is the remarkable perseverance of American citizens – our belief and our pride in continuously making our nation better.  We’ve never been satisfied, nor should we be.  Instead we continue insisting on improvement.  The second thing that is apparent is that politics and the institutions of government have been our tools to facilitate the changes that we want.

Perseverance and politics helped create our national success.   Despite the messy and contentious nature of our politics, we should respect how much better it is than anarchy.  Hamilton argues for citizen involvement in politics as a means to improve our own lives, communities and institutions; and in particular he points out the responsibility to “…encourage young people’s engagement with the problems we confront.”  Through personal involvement we can understand the difficulty of reaching agreement and the amount of work required to make progress.  It’s hard.  But the alternative is surrender to the status quo.

Hamilton closes his commentary with this argument, “Those of us who believe in the system must shoulder the burden of persuasion — and I’m worried about what happens if we don’t meet it. If we lose the argument and the next generation turns away, we face dangers and risks — chaos, authoritarianism — that are far worse than what we face now.”