My Sun column today is about the rare thing called political selflessness. I have been thinking a lot about President Biden, especially since his decision on Sunday to drop out of the presidential race. It's been hailed as an extraordinary act of selflessness at the end of a long career in public service. Clearly – and despite all the MAGA smears about Biden family corruption – Biden has set the bar high for selfless service to the country.
His fellow Democrats have called Biden's decision patriotic and courageous, an act for the good of the republic. Stephen Colbert said, "President Biden has always put our country first, and in making this decision, he has once again done what he thinks is best for the future of our democracy. This act puts Joe Biden in league with history's most selfless leaders: Roman general Cincinnatus, the father of our country George Washington and Kim Cattrall, who has stepped down as Samantha [in Sex and the City revival series] after Nancy Pelosi showed her the polls."
But Biden got me thinking more generally about public service. There are millions who serve this country — as scientists, educators, diplomats, social workers, doctors and nurses, FBI agents, intelligence agents, engineers, firefighters and police officers, postal carriers, prosecutors, paramedics, public defenders, planners, judges, administrators, and as Peace Corps volunteers.
What draws people to the public sector in the first place?
At the baseline, career choices start with selfish intent – we all need jobs and would like the best possible. That's just human nature, stemming from the survival instinct. But, somewhere along the way, something else clicks – a sense of the bigger world and your immediate community, the idea of the public good, the commonweal, and maybe taking part in that in some way.
It's not for everybody. Some people are after much bigger personal rewards, starting with their salaries.
And some people take the very dark Reganesque view that government creates more problems than it fixes. That is really not only factually wrong, but completely upside down and it works against the idea of the common good. It's really a selfish view.
Conservative politicians have been tearing down government for 40-plus years, denigrating public service. The anti-government thing reached a whole new level with Trump, Steve Bannon and, now, the creation of Project 2025 and the idea that the "deep state" (whatever that is) must be torn down and built anew as a thoroughly politicized bureaucracy in service to the president and not the public.
That's nuts, and, for the good of the country, Americans should vote against it this November.
The nation needs an engaged, vigilant citizenry and a new generation of leaders who are competent, compassionate and smart, who believe in the value of good government, and who care about the future of this democracy. Celebrating those who served the country in all ways — in the military and civilian life — would be a good way to restore the sense of duty and even selflessness that the nation needs.
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