Perspective: Time to go beyond partisanship

Well, we’re at it again. It seems that in the case of Senator Ray Holmberg many are rushing to judgment without knowing the circumstances of his sin.

According to former students, Ray Holmberg was an excellent Grand Forks teacher and served the State of North Dakota in the senate for 44 years.

He was no ordinary senator. He took the challenge seriously and made every effort to put together a biennial budget that was fair to all parts of the state.

No One Powerful

He had considerable influence on legislation, but it would be an error to call his chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee as “powerful” because no one in North Dakota state government is allowed to be powerful.

It takes tedious consensus building bigtime.

In North Dakotas, consensus building is hard. Sometimes, even impossible. Success depends on bringing together dozens of private and public entities and that requires extra hours of effort. This meant appeasement and compromise, skills that many legislators lack but Holmberg had.

So after an illustrious civic life, some are ready to kill Holmberg politically. As a political scientist, I am concerned over the poisoning of the public well.

Poison Environment

Embarrassing sins are always dredged up, usually out of context. This kind of treatment discourages a willingness to be a part of the process. In Bismarck and Washington, legislators are quitting because of the poisonous environment.

This happened to Senator Al Franken (2009-2018) in Minnesota. A Harvard graduate who served in the U.S. Senate, he had been a writer for Saturday Night Live and did stand-up comedy. In that role and at that time, he did or said something that irritated people.

The flap forced him to leave the Senate after nine years of stellar performance. Apparently, it is dangerous to go into politics after being a successful comedian. A lot of humor is offending.

Everyone Has Hidden Sin

Because we are human, I can guess that just about everyone in the legislature or congress has some embarrassing thing in his/her past. I have a couple. But that is also true about the electorate. These are real people with real weaknesses, just like the rest of us.

We are in an era when government is evil and everyone in government is a crook or reprobate of some kind. Donald Trump’s rhetoric hasn’t helped.

Not only has he polarized society, but he commits assault daily, threatening everyone who stands up to him. Over the long run, a democracy cannot sustain this anti-government drift. The mood he created has been absorbed by innumerable followers who are ready to overthrow the government, as the January 6th debacle proved.

Rising Above Party

On some occasions, we must rise beyond party and the partisan fray. Our history is cluttered with examples of political crucifixions. It will continue but it must be restrained to a decent level of civicness. Polls show that political bitterness between the parties has escalated in the last decade. Some believe we are headed for a civil war.

Before Holmberg resigned and the scandal broke, just about every Republican in North Dakota had praised his 44 years of effort on behalf of North Dakota and Grand Forks. Whether or not they will consider his illustrious track record when rendering judgement only time will tell.

I have a difficult time believing that we should sweep this 44-year senate career aside without some major chronic fault. It is common coin to believe that the punishment should fit the crime. Let us see the crime before meting out punishment.