Bernard Weatherill, who used to be speaker of the British House of Commons, once asked what he’d like to have on his gravestone. “He always kept his word” was the answer. This echoes a similar comment by Bernard Levin (quite possibly the best British journalist of his generation, up there with H. L. Mencken in the American pantheon) over whether it was desirable to be remembered that way, or with, “He always acted for the best.”
Which brings us to South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Not that I have a vote, nor should I, as a foreigner, but he’d get mine. Not because I agree with him on anything, just because he’s insisting that he’ll keep his word. Buttigieg signed a nondisclosure agreement with his former employer, McKinsey & Company, and insists he’ll actually keep his word and honor that agreement.
Sticking to your word is an interesting innovation in modern politics. We might even hope for more of it.
Politics is the art of managing the passing moment. The things that are politically judicious to do are those that gain that fleeting support necessary for the next period before the inevitable election. This might include such howlingly bad ideas as rent control, the state provision of everyone’s healthcare, or even throwing some cruise missiles at a Sudanese aspirin factory, as President Bill Clinton did when people were asking awkward questions about Monica Lewinsky.
The point being that every politician does justify such with the insistence that it’s for the best. We live in a second-best world, and something must be done, so here is that something. There are no absolutes here in these shifting sands.
You might think me excessively cynical here, but then the correct approach to politics is always, “But am I being cynical enough?”
This is also why others are insisting that Buttigieg must talk about his time at McKinsey, either in the hope that he did something that can be shouted about — recommended, say, that self-checkout be introduced, thus costing some single mothers their jobs — or, even better, that he does actually stand there and insist on keeping his word, for then, aspersions can be cast concerning what he’s hiding without there actually being anything to be hidden. And we’ve not seen that happening at all now, have we?
It’s even possible that the swamp dwellers have been up to their necks in it for too long. They now miss the point that out in flyover country, keeping your word is considered something admirable — even just plain old normal. Things such as marriage vows, for example, instead of what you say or promise being just the expediency of the moment.
Sure, it’s possible to take this way too far into the realms of hagiography. After all, I am claiming that promise-holding is normal, even if it’s vanishingly rare among politicians, which is why it’s fortunate that McKinsey has agreed to release Buttigieg from that nondisclosure agreement. He can indeed tell us about his clients, the work he did for them, and we’ll be able to examine and consider at our leisure.
This being perhaps the important part of the story, for if there is anything in there that would perhaps be better left hidden, then we’re going to find it, exactly because of that earlier stand on principle. And there’s nothing worse for a politician than to make that appeal to honor and then to be shown not worth the approbation. That’s worse than being seen to be part of the swamp all along.
It’s going to be interesting, no?
Tim Worstall (@worstall) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a senior fellow at the Adam Smith Institute. You can read all his pieces at the Continental Telegraph.
