The family that politics together, stays together

Life is better and richer, healthier and stronger, with tension in it.

The gravitational pull (tension) between Earth and the sun.

The way our muscles contract and relax to move our bodies.

The sweetest sounds we know come from the tension of things like eardrums, guitar strings, and vocal cords.

Great sex takes the buildup and release of tension between two people.

I am thankful for the tension between my wife and me. Before we met, I was loose and sloppy in many things. But sharing life with her–a person who is different from me in so many ways–made the tension that is making me a better man.

Getting better as a person is not just for me; it’s for my wife, too. It’s for my son. It’s for every person with whom I have a relationship. Sharing life with my wife–so different from me in so many ways–makes a tension that does so much good for so many people beyond my wife and me.

It’s almost as if God made tension by design for the good of all things.

Do you get the point? We need tension in our lives to be our best selves and to live our best lives. We need tension in our world for our world to be the best it can be for all life.

When James Madison was working on the U.S. Constitution, he recorded his thoughts on what would make the new Republic healthy and strong.

Do you know what he thought it would be?

Tension.

Madison compared the Constitution to the inner workings of a clock. Clocks in those days depended on gravity and a system of internal tension to keep the time.

Some of us may guess that this “tension” in the U.S. Constitution is the system of “checks and balances” in the federal government (the three co-equal branches).

But the Framers needed the Constitution to do more than set up tension in the federal government; they needed it to set up healthy tension among the citizens as well. Constitutional features like the Electoral College and the Senate ensure that one faction of the people cannot gain too much power over other factions. The Framers designed a system that would make tension among citizens a permanent feature of the Republic.

It is a vital feature. Without a system that encourages tension–protects a constant pull and push among citizens–one faction could eventually take complete control of the country. When one faction takes complete control, the Republic ceases to exist. Monarchy becomes the only logical end as no “loyal opposition” or strong minority is in place to stop it.

So, like many other things we see in our world, the Republic is at its best when healthy tension is at work among its citizens.

For the Republic to survive and thrive, we need blue collar and white collar, city and country, conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans. We need people of every age, culture, faith, and nationality.

The tension between these factions is vital to our body politic.

But, there is a catch: Tension is only good for the Republic as long as the great majority of us keep our faith in the political system itself.

Human beings invented politics to order society and to resolve differences without resorting to bloodshed and violence. Some of us learned a long time ago that when we kill each other, all of us lose. To resort to violence is to set on fire the platform beneath our own feet.

In the system that the Framers set up, leaders have a sacred responsibility to call on citizens to keep their faith in the political system. Leaders have a sacred responsibility to preserve and protect the political system itself so that it will keep the tension among citizens healthy and productive.

As long as our leaders keep their commitment to our political system and our political system itself is working in their care, citizens have a healthy way to work out their differences.

What does that look like?

Within our political system, it looks like coalitions and compromise. It looks like give and take. It looks like everyone having a seat at the table.

Most of all, it looks like faith. That is: “I believe the political system will make it possible for my voice to be heard now and in the future.” I can give a little today because I believe the political system will be there for my voice tomorrow. The Republic and We the People are always a work in progress and our system of government ensures that process will never end.

This is what I believe America is meant to be. Coalitions. Compromise. Faith. Healthy tension. A political system that is set up by design to encourage and protect differences and turn them into strength.

In the 12 years that I’ve been married to my wife, I’ve been in counseling twice. Why? Because the tension in our marriage got unhealthy and I didn’t know what to do about it.

I could fight my wife and hope that she eventually gives up and submits.

I could give up and give her whatever she wants at the cost of my own self.

I could quit the marriage and walk away.

Why do I stay?

Because I love my wife. I love our family. I believe in her. I believe in us. I believe the hard way of learning to live together is better now and later. Life together–even when things get tense–is so much better than life apart. The opportunities and potential are so much greater together than apart. It is worth it to do whatever hard work it takes to stay together.

I believe this. I have faith that it will turn out even better than I imagine.

Our Republic is a family that runs on tension. When the tension is good and healthy, the Republic is healthy. When the tension gets ugly and unhealthy, the Republic gets sickly and weak.

We the People choose.

Will we choose to keep our faith in a Republic of coalitions and compromise? Will we choose to keep our faith in a political system that is set up to keep us working together for the good of all? Will we keep our faith in “E Pluribus Unum?”

This is the choice before We the People now.

There are leaders who are calling on us to give up on each other, to give up on the tension that is built into our Republic. There are leaders who are saying that tension is bad; that all of America should feel, look, and think like just one faction of the citizens. That all others must be pushed down and pushed out. That coalitions and compromise are for losers and weaklings. There are leaders who are calling us to follow their own personal patterns of dominance or divorce, who want to divide us into “winners” and “losers.”

Those leaders do not understand America. They do not know how it is meant to work. They do not know what it took to make America’s great parts great. They don’t know how to make America great because they misunderstand how the Framers designed America to grow into greatness.

But enough about them.

How do We the People choose to keep our faith in America? To keep our faith in our system of government? To keep our faith in each other?

Look for coalitions of citizens who are different from each other, but finding ways to use that healthy tension to come up with real ideas. Look for who is leading those coalitions. Are those leaders celebrating the tension among We the People? Are they celebrating the tension in our system of government? Are they calling us to renew our faith in each other and in our Republic? Are they held accountable by the coalitions they lead?

Choose those leaders. They know what the Framers intended. They know what America is about. They know what makes America great.

Better yet, choose to be one of them yourself.

Most of all, choose We the People. Every difference of opinion. Every faction. Every point of view. Choose to live in this tension. Choose the joy of learning how to compromise and work together for the good of all.

It is what will save the Republic and make it healthy for our children and our children’s children.