In praise of normal people and lawmakers
A song I’ve always liked is “Stuck Up Blues” by the Louvin Brothers, a legendary country music duo. They sing a great line, “Show me a hundred stuck-up folks, and I’ll show you a hundred fools.”
I did an interview with Oklahoma Rep. Rob Hall at the State Policy Network’s Annual Meeting in Orlando back in late August. He’s not stuck up. Besides scoring a 36 on his ACT, he’s a normal guy. (Okay, that’s kind of super human). And that’s something most Americans probably wouldn’t say about a lot of politicians they see or even encounter, particularly so many in Washington. In my short stint on Capitol Hill, I’d sometimes laugh at the entourages some U.S. Senators often surround themselves with. I mean how important can you really be if you don’t have handlers at your side to pass you a phone or briefing papers?
I thought Hall gave a great answer during that interview when he bragged up Oklahoma, saying it produces “elite people, but not elitists.” I really liked the phrasing, but sitting across from Hall, I could tell he meant every word.
I think most every one of us can say that, at some point, we’ve been big-timed by somebody. I can think of several politicians I’ve encountered who were determined to remind everyone in the room that they were the most important person there. Maybe that’s just a personality flaw and politics can certainly lend itself to attracting that kind of persona. And as we know, too, “power corrupts.” But in politics, it also points to something larger. A republic depends on the idea that elected officials are citizens entrusted with temporary authority, not individuals that are part of a special ruling class.
State representatives like Hall tend to be more normal and down to earth because they so often run into the people they represent at the grocery store or community ball games. They live amongst the people they represent and have to be ready to answer in-person for their votes and decisions. “Government to be safe and to be free must consist of representatives having a common interest and a common feeling with the represented,” declared John Randolph of Roanoke, the early 19th-century Virginia legislator.
The Louvin Brothers probably weren’t contemplating a theory of republican government when they sang about “stuck-up folks.” But they really understood something a healthy republic can’t really afford to forget either, which is the importance of being humble and having the attitude and posture of a servant leader. There is a great line from Norman Schwarzkopf I absolutely love: “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.”
—Ray Nothstine
— The Federalism Beat