Sununu ast SU Commencement

Yesterday, John Sununu gave the commencement address at Shenandoah University where I am professor of Religion.  Some of my colleagues and friends were upset at his invitation to speak.  I was not.  From what I could learn about quickly, he has been a moderate Republican and the only controversy surrounding him had to do with comments he made during the recent Presidential campaign as a spokesperson for Mitt Romney.  I was willing to overlook those comments on the grounds that people say all kinds of stupid things during the campaign.

Yesterday, he gave a completely unmemorable commencement address until the very end.  If I find a text of his comments I'll post them, but here's what I remember.  He said something like, "So as not to disappoint those of you who are expecting me say something controversial..." He then referenced President Obama's commencement address at Ohio State saying something like "his praise of big government there."

Then he cited a quotation which he said has been variously attributed (I think he said to Ronald Reagan and other back to the Founding Fathers):  "A government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have."   He got applause from a significant percentage of our students to which I immediately commented:  "Isn't it interesting that people who got their education with the help of state and federal low interest loans applauded those comments."  I was thinking "big government" aways means "government that does things for other people, or government that does things I don't like."

Interestingly what President Obama actually offered was a serious and thoughtful discussion of the role of government.  (See below,)  Sununu took what I call a potshot (which all of us, myself included, are prone to take, especially in conversation), by which I mean a short, trite, criticism lacking any substantial justification.  It's a rhetorical device that "works" when one is talking to people who already agree with you or when you are not interested in dialogue or persuasion but only to rouse fellow partistans.   

Such potshots are IRRESPONSIBLE in a context like a commencement address, both because one can't assume the agreement of your audience and because of the academic settings.

This is also interesting. In researching the quotation he used this morning, I discovered on the Monticello website: " Neither this quotation nor any of its variant forms has been found in the writings of Thomas Jefferson.  Its first known appearance in print was in 1953, although it is most likely older.  It appeared frequently in newspapers in the 1950s (usually unattributed), and was even used in political cartoons.  It was copyrighted in 1957 by the General Features Corporation, as part of a syndicated newspaper feature called "Today's Chuckle."  It later became a popular saying among Republican politicians.  Governor Harold W. Handley of Indiana used it in his annual message to the Indiana General Assembly in 1961;[3] Barry Goldwater was quoted using it in his 1964 run for president;[4] and Gerald Ford is on record using it in an address to a joint session of Congress on August 12, 1974.[5]  It was attributed to Ford as early as 1954, however,[6] and Ford's assistant, Robert Hartmann, said that Ford claimed to have heard the quotation "early in his political career" from Harvard McClain at the Economic Club of Chicago.[7]

This quotation was not attributed to Jefferson until relatively recently."

(http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/government-big-enough-to-give-you-everything-you-wantquotation)

Sununu's comments is an indication of why we are in a political morass right now.  He and his Republican colleagues are making it impossible for us to have a serious conversation about the role of government in our lives and, given the budget situation about which all of us are concerned, a thoughtful approach to eliminating bad programs (while enhancing support for that which is truly essential).

What Obama actually said:

"Colleagues with whom I shared a joyous commencement:  Here's what Barack Obama actually said about government in his Ohio State commence address.  Please pass this on to others who were there.  Warren

And that’s precisely what the Founders left us — the power, each of us, to adapt to changing times. They left us the keys to a system of self-government, the tools to do big things and important things together that we could not possibly do alone — to stretch railroads and electricity and a highway system across a sprawling continent. To educate our people with a system of public schools and land-grant colleges, including The Ohio State University. To care for the sick and the vulnerable, and provide a basic level of protection from falling into abject poverty in the wealthiest nation on Earth. (Applause.) To conquer fascism and disease; to visit the Moon and Mars; to gradually secure our God-given rights for all of our citizens, regardless of who they are, or what they look like, or who they love. (Applause.)

We, the people, chose to do these things together — because we know this country cannot accomplish great things if we pursue nothing greater than our own individual ambition.

Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems; some of these same voices also doing their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave and creative and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.

We have never been a people who place all of our faith in government to solve our problems; we shouldn’t want to. But we don’t think the government is the source of all our problems, either. Because we understand that this democracy is ours. And as citizens, we understand that it’s not about what America can do for us; it’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but absolutely necessary work of self-government. (Applause.) And, Class of 2013, you have to be involved in that process. (Applause.)

The founders trusted us with this awesome authority. We should trust ourselves with it, too. Because when we don’t, when we turn away and get discouraged and cynical, and abdicate that authority, we grant our silent consent to someone who will gladly claim it. That’s how we end up with lobbyists who set the agenda; and policies detached from what middle-class families face every day; the well-connected who publicly demand that Washington stay out of their business — and then whisper in government’s ear for special treatment that you don’t get.

That’s how a small minority of lawmakers get cover to defeat something the vast majority of their constituents want. That’s how our political system gets consumed by small things when we are a people called to do great things — like rebuild a middle class, and reverse the rise of inequality, and repair the deteriorating climate that threatens everything we plan to leave for our kids and our grandkids.

Class of 2013, only you can ultimately break that cycle. Only you can make sure the democracy you inherit is as good as we know it can be. But it requires your dedicated, and informed, and engaged citizenship. And that citizenship is a harder, higher road to take, but it leads to a better place. It’s how we built this country — together."