Here, in America’s Dairyland, a place of astonishing beauty, one finds a political preference for consensus, leading to frequent and sensible compromises, but occasionally requiring opposition. That’s true in Whitewater, too.
Consensus.
Of all America, I know of no place that favors consensus more than Wisconsin does. There’s speculation of how she has come to prefer it so very much, but it hardly matters now; favor it she does. In politics, we are a people that prefers a common way. This seems so obvious to me — and likely to you also — that I will not belabor the point.
Compromise.
For most political matters, a compromise makes sense. Policies on spending, taxation, and budgets can be resolved, most especially in a state like ours, where our fellow citizens favor consensus. It’s easier to come to compromise on the ordinary debates of life in a place that favors consensus, so we have a leg up on many parts of the world.
Opposition.
Yet, there are some matters — of the administration of justice, and of the truthfulness of officials’ statements — over which there cannot be compromise. An official’s wrongful conduct, another’s shameless lying, should not be met with acceptance. One should not — of this I am sure — say, for example, “that’s just so-and-so, being how he always is.”
I’ve heard this, about a few in Whitewater, along the lines that one should excuse conflicts of interest, or dishonest statements, or wrongful public actions, on the theory that no one meant ill by them.
That excuse would, of course, exculpate almost anyone from almost anything, on the theory that he lied for a supposedly good, well-intentioned, public purpose.
Any town — and certainly an American town, being the inheritor of centuries of justice — deserves better.
Toward injustices and official lies there can be only opposition. There is no supervening local standard of conduct that trumps America’s tradition of public honest and integrity.
One yearns for compromise, but opposition, rather than compromise, is what dishonest officials deserve.
We are fortunate that there are few such officials; sadly, we are afflicted, as we have some, when no community deserves any.