November 4, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — "When I first served in Congress, in the 1960s and 1970s, I would often
sit on the floor of the House and listen carefully to members from both
sides," writes Lee Hamilton, veteran statesman and 1952 graduate of DePauw University, in a newspaper op-ed. "I was trying to figure out the differences between the liberals
and the conservatives, and to perceive how those differences could be
narrowed or bridged. They broke over how to answer the overriding question of American
government -- the proper role of government -- with liberals seeing an
expansive role and conservatives a limited one. At the time, there was
plenty of gray area where the two could find common ground."
The Democrat who served 34 years in the U.S. House of Representatives observes, "Individual politicians rarely fit into neatly defined categories. And the truth is, trying to reach agreement on complex issues forces both sides to temper the purity of their visions."
According to Hamilton, "Many conservatives may want to contract the reach of social-welfare
policy, but they're leery of threatening the existence of such programs
as Social Security and Medicare. Similarly, while they espouse relying
on market forces to solve most of our problems, they accept affecting
the economy through changes in the tax code and believe government
should direct some matters of social policy. Likewise, most
liberals are now open to leaving more responsibilities with the private
sector. They want to see power and personal liberty diffused in a way
that is compatible with a market economy -- but still reliant on the
government to help provide a secure old age, health and education. The
result of this tension is our mixed economy -- neither entirely
free-market nor controlled by the state -- and our pendulum-swing
politics."
He notes, "My experience is that apart from the ideologically committed, most Americans don't worry a lot about whether a given policy is 'liberal' or 'conservative.' They worry about whether or not it works ... When ideology trumps pragmatism, we find ourselves incapable of moving. Yet these ideological battles are engrained in the dialogue of our democracy. The argument between a smaller and a greater role for government has been with us since the very beginning of our nation; in some ways it defines our political history."
The column concludes, "Our challenge today, as it has always been, is to balance the passions of those who find themselves firmly on one side or the other against the common sense of the great mass of Americans, who are most concerned about making progress on the problems that beset them. As the common phrase has it, they want not big government or small government, but smart government. They want our political leaders to set ideological purity aside, and just get things done."
Access the complete essay at the website of the Statesman Journal of Salem, Oregon.
Lee H. Hamilton, who co-chaired both the 9/11 Commission and Iraq Study Group, is now director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He was recently appointed co-chair of the Indiana Bicentennial Commission.
On March 15, he returned to DePauw to deliver a Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture. A summary including video clips can be accessed here.