Faith in Politics

...Senator Lieberman is best known for his orthodox observance of the Jewish Sabbath...

...And he offers the welfare reform law of 1996, the anti-crime law of 1994, and the budget balancing of 1993 and 1997 (all coincident with the Clinton administration) as examples of our political and moral awakening...

...Along the way, it was encouraged by other, less famous political men, such as John Bailey, chairman of both the national and Connecticut Democratic committees and a "consummate political deal-maker," whom Lieberman made the subject of his senior thesis at Yale...

...After all, as Lieber-man observes, entertainment and news take their bearings by the market...

...in Washington in the summer of 1963 and, courageously, to register black voters in Mississippi...

...But these, if they are indeed signs of "awakening" and not merely an expression of our self-interest, have already been accomplished...

...It can be said that this is no more than politics as usual...

...With it, one may even run some political risks by taking positions with which many constituents disagree: Because they trust their representative, they will give him the benefit of some doubts...

...become Al Gore's vice-presidential running mate...

...They are not permitted, in a manner of speaking, to have private lives, both in principle and now in practice (given the intense scrutiny of the media and their opponents...

...In the end he won by a margin of less than 1 percent, aided by an unusual combination of factors: guidance from Stan Greenberg and Carter Eskew (Democratic political consultants later important to the Clinton-Gore campaign), the support of Republicans discontented with Weicker (including William Buckley, the father of modern conservatism and Lieberman's Republican "rabbi," as he puts it), and the votes of traditional Christian, especially Catholic, voters who were impressed by his religious observance of the Jewish Sabbath throughout the campaign...

...Americans are, he said, "children of an awesome God," equally made in His image...

...It is rather that in speaking of his Jewish principles and their relation to public life, he prefers to lavish emphasis on the Hebrew phrase tikkun olam, which means repair or reform of the world— and his treatment of this subject creates an important difficulty for his ostensible enterprise on behalf of religious faith...

...Of course, some protests have been heard: Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League has written a letter asking Lieberman to stop making "overt expressions" of religious belief...

...Gore was in great need of proof of his own integrity...

...So one would think that the subject of Sabbath observance would be an ideal opportunity to instruct his fellow American Jews, as well as other Americans, about the meaning of faith and its potential benefit for public life...

...A win, however implausible (Weicker was ahead by 25 points at the outset of the campaign), would permit Lieberman a leap in his political career and realize his "ultimate ambition," a seat in the United States Senate...

...It should provide powerful examples of adherence to principle—and to the integrity, and honesty of which we have great need...

...We confused tolerance and respect for all people with tolerance and acceptance of all behavior...

...On August 29, Senator Lieberman's wife Hadassah told B'nai B'rith that the "ultimate purpose" of the Gore-Lieberman ticket is "tikkun olam, the repair of the world...

...We are, after all, not just a nation," but "one nation, under God...

...Lieberman cites three examples: welfare dependency, criminality, and federal deficit spending...

...He has now received it from the only man who could express his views in a compelling religious fashion without seriously upsetting most Jews and most liberal Democrats...

...For the same reason, a respectable loss would do him no damage and would, by increasing his name recognition, enhance his prospects to be elected governor of Connecticut, which prior to the Senate campaign had been his next ambition...

...President Clinton's failure to appreciate this ruined his presidency, for him and for us...

...It was particularly inspired by the campaign of John If Kennedy and the exciting rhetoric of Kennedy's inaugural address...

...And his appearance in Detroit at the Fellowship Chapel provided a perfect opportunity for Lieberman to offer an example of a politician holding to his religiously informed principles in a difficult political situation...

...But he has relatively little to say about his observance, and much of what he does say defines it as his form of relaxation, different from other forms of leisure but not in any way intrinsically superior...

...In a speech on Sunday, August 27, from the pulpit of the Fellowship Chapel, an African-American church in Detroit, Lieberman told the congregation, "I stand before you today as a witness to the goodness of God," and he declared that "as a people we need to reaffirm our faith...

...Of course, gratitude of any sort as well as a serious weekly respite from our otherwise restless lives cuts against the grain of many contemporary American tendencies that Lieberman decries...

...It is an issue that bears directly on what Lieberman has termed the fundamental principle of both America and his own faith, a view he reiterated both in his speech in Detroit and at an inter-faith prayer breakfast in Chicago the following day...

...Only once does he speak of it as the Jewish means of expressing appreciation of God's Creation and gratitude and honor to Him for it...

...In other cases, like experimental voucher programs, he has stated that he has not necessarily changed his views...

...The greatest deficiency of In Praise of Public Life is its treatment of principle, especially moral and religious principle...

...Without faithful adherence to that trust, everything else will fall apart...

...Lieberman's own dedication to that principle and the injustice of segregation led him, while a student at Yale, to march with Martin Luther King Jr...

...Thus far in Lieber-man's campaign, including his campaign autobiography In Praise of Public Life, we have had instruction in ambition and political calculation...

...But as Lieberman knows, for the last thirty years tikkun olam has become ubiquitous in American Jewish life, where it is used to express not traditional piety but social and political activism...

...What importance does that leave to his vision of the role of religious faith...

...But in politics, calculation must be joined to this combination— "the challenge is to match your ambition, passion and talent with the right opportunity"—and Lieberman has applied this requirement well...

...No doubt in Lieberman's case, a devotion to social reform flows from traditional piety and is conditioned by its relation to other religious principles...

...What has become of that...

...In so doing he diminished not only his "basic principles" but the dignified integrity that he has proclaimed his touchstone...

...The title is something of a misnomer, for the book is in praise not so much of public life as of politics as a career and a profession...

...In the final and most substantive chapter of In Praise of Public Life, Lieberman champions the American religious reawakening he believes to be occurring, and he defends the presence of religion in the 2000 presidential campaign—a presence, already extraordinarily high when his book was published this spring, that has been massively increased by his own nomination...

...Lieberman's answer is disappointing to many of his past admirers, including me, one of his fellow American Jews...

...How are we to support "faith, family, and school" in their "life and death struggle...

...But it also was, he says, refreshed by the presidency of Ronald Reagan and the "strength, comfort, optimism, and idealism" that Reagan "radiated...

...America may be amazingly prosperous, strong, and free...

...It expressed itself through an absorption with impressive contemporary American politicians, beginning with a childhood admiration for Dwight Eisenhower...

...In this he does indeed provide an example of adherence to a principle that involves some inconveniences and therefore requires the self-restraint he calls on others to practice...

...One of his central points is that political ambition is natural, good, and healthy, at least under the right circumstances...

...In some cases, like Social Security, Lieberman has said that on closer study he changed his mind...

...How has it set an example which addresses the crisis we face and our need for renewed dedication to principle, for integrity...

...Instead, both in his book and since its publication, he has been silent about, downplayed, or simply abandoned the actual positions that once seemed to be connected to his religious views...

...According to Lieberman, this is a blessing not a curse, for both himself and his fellow citizens, since "ambition, when combined with principle, is one of the greatest sources of progress for a society" not only but especially in politics...

...But Lieberman forgoes this chance...

...This combination of motives—generous and public-spirited on the one hand, ambitious and self-interested on the other—does not embarrass Lieber-man...

...What else are we to do—particularly for our children, who are his main concern in our current "crisis...

...For this version of tikkun, we don't need traditional piety...

...Lieberman seems to have only two proposals...

...We forgot that some behaviors are simply intolerable...

...They include respect for the dignity of each human life, individual freedom, equal opportunity, tolerance, self-government, limited government, personal and civic responsibility, and a belief in the existence of higher laws of right and wrong that unites us as a people...

...To define our moral situation he relies on Alan Wolfe's One Nation, After All and its finding that Americans share common values, above all the value of tolerance...

...On affirmative action, Lieberman's behavior is even more troubling...

...First, traditional piety like his own should be more forthright in proclaiming its principles...

...Faith in Politics Joseph Lieberman explains himself BY HILLEL FRADKIN Early this spring, Senator I Joseph Lieberman—now I Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieber-man—^published In Praise of Public Life...

...we need only the Democratic party platform...

...Politicians must understand that they are not just citizens but public figures who must lead model lives...

...This is, as Lieberman had insisted with regard to President Clinton, especially true of public officials...

...But that Lieberman did not do...

...This, coming from an American politician, seems strong stuff...

...The faithless and sordid behavior of our politicians only contributes to this decay, when they ought to be and are uniquely situated to reverse it...

...Our "core values, expressed in the common principles of our major religions, are in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights...

...And, of course, if the ticket should win, he will probably be given a good deal of the credit—which he may well deserve...

...How has religious faith and principle informed his public life...

...At this point, all that seems to remain is religious rhetoric...

...Second, we must fight to overcome the great obstacles to the edifying effect of such examples—in particular, the competition of the entertainment and news industries for the hearts and minds of our children...

...He broke his trust with the public, first by offering a disgraceful example and then by lying about it...

...But what Lieberman has been promoting is unusual politics—a politics of integrity and religious faith...

...In 1988, when he was Connecticut attorney general, the right opportunity came along in the form of a long-shot race for a Senate seat against the maverick Republican incumbent Lowell Weicker...

...There is," the senator declares, "a swelling sense that much of our culture has become toxic, that our standards of decency and civility are being significantly eroded by the entertainment industry's shameless and pervasive promotion of violence, sex, and vulgarity, and that the traditional sources of values in our society—such as faith, family, and school—are in a life and death struggle with the darker forces of immorality, inhumanity, and greed...

...Through religious awakening, our country needs to draw "a political awakening to restore our government's clarity of purpose, its integrity of action and its credibility among the American people...

...It is thus that perhaps no other issue is more important for the explanation of Lieberman's faith and principles...

...Lieberman may be said to solve the problem of ambition by being so vague about principle...

...And this is exactly what he does not do...

...The term has effectively become the vehicle by which contemporary, secular, and largely liberal pieties have come to define much of American Judaism...

...Elected officials must realize that the core of their relations with the electorate is trust and honesty...

...But such is not the case...

...Lieberman's argument, for both his position and himself as a candidate, ultimately turns on his own personal example...

...But the widely reported spat with Fox-man is one Lieberman is bound to win—and to receive a considerably enhanced public reputation for winning...

...If elected, he may continue to argue privately on their behalf with President Gore, but Gore's ultimate decision will then as now have his public support...

...Brady fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author of a forthcoming book on the Bible and American liberal democracy...

...In Praise of Public Life is, in short, a campaign autobiography, replete with the usual formal descriptions of its author's positions on various domestic and foreign issues...

...Most important for Lieber-man's enterprise, tikkun olam is typically an expression of that tolerant but non-judgmental moral posture that he declares the core of our problem...

...But Lieberman laments Wolfe's further finding (which Wolfe tends to celebrate) that we are "increasingly unwilling to assert long-held communal values and make moral judgments...

...But apart from the present utility of Lieberman's political and religious rhetoric, there remains a question: What is the value of his attempted resolution of the problem of ambition and principle...

...In the past, Lieberman's talk about religion has provided some cover for his friends on the right...

...But Lieberman has made even stronger remarks since his nomination...

...But the trust that is required must be broadly construed...

...But for his example to be of use, he would need to take on the hard task of explaining, to both American Jews and gentiles, these religious principles and the stern integrity that he claims is part of the blessing they could provide...

...Without faith in that principle, neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution "could have been written...

...Contact with Bailey and other local politicians put Lieberman in touch with people important to launching his political career with a successful race for the Connecticut Senate in 1970, three years after finishing Yale Law School...

...But Senator Lieberman's chief praise is reserved for one particular politician's career and religious faithfulness: Senator Joseph Lieberman's...

...Moreover, Lieberman's old friends on the right are likely to tread lightly in attacking a man of faith...

...Apparently the same dedication led him years later to oppose at least some forms of affirmative action on the ground that they violated "a basic principle of American life...

...In the present, it provides cover for his friends on the left...

...This too required a bit of courage in the face of a protest rally mounted against him at Yale in 1995 by Jesse Jackson, Patricia Ireland, and others...

...Generally put, Lieberman's answer to the problem of our politics, the problem of ambition and principle, is faith...

...Weicker's presumed advantage meant that there was little competition for the Democratic nomination...

...But what of honorable ambition grounded and guided by religious faith...

...One might suppose his silence means that he believes the impact of religious faith upon political life in a liberal democracy should only be indirect and that religious principles cannot be directly applied to public life...

...Nevertheless, we enjoy these blessings in the midst of a "crumbling moral framework" that diminishes the purpose of such blessings and may eventually undermine them altogether...

...Beginning with the founders of our country and the framers of its Constitution, each succeeding generation of Americans that has faced such a time of crisis has turned to God and to America's civil religion for strength and purpose...

...This is why another kind of faith, religious faith, is an important part of the answer to the problem of politics in our time...

...And what is left of the political faith or trust—"the integrity of action and its credibility among the American peo-ple"—upon which he so much insists...

...If the Gore-Lieberman ticket should lose, it is unlikely that he will be blamed and he will certainly win reelection to the Senate seat for which he is simultaneously standing...

...These were not, according to Lieberman, minor liabilities...

...This is not what's typically heard from American Jews, most of whom react to such rhetoric with unease and even hostility...

...That is what it means to pursue politics as a "professional," a term of contempt that Lieberman would like to see a term of honor...

...This was a good opportunity for a variety of reasons...

...With considerable candor, Lieberman reveals the powerful political ambition he found within himself from his earliest youth...

...Rather, only a few days before, he had declared, "I have supported affirmative action, I do support affirmative action, and I will support affirmative action...

...The term tikkun olam has a respectable and important place in ancient Jewish tradition, especially the mystical tradition, where it is particularly associated with heightened devotion to prayer and other ritual observances...

...Reelection in 1994 has now given Lieberman twelve years in the Senate, and once again opportunity has come along...

...And though the book appeared at a curious moment—for the author wasn't, after all, running in the Democratic primaries for president—it proved a successful salvo in the campaign we can now see Lieberman was actually waging: the campaign to Hillel Fradkin, the W.H...

...Of the two, it would seem that the first is the more crucial...

...If people of faith set a powerful example they would alter that market...

...Although the chapter is entitled "The Future," it calls upon us to look to the past, American and biblical (which prove to be more or less harmonious, if not identical...

...No doubt this involves a considerable cost to politicians, but there is a reward in the glory from honorable public service...

...Lieberman's In Praise of Public Life solves the problem of ambition and principle by being so vague about principle...

...Addressed to widespread cynicism about politics (especially among young Americans), the book aims to encourage a more appreciative view of politics' potential "satisfaction," "excitement," and "honor"—a potential he believes can be realized by carrying a strong personal religious faith into the public arena...

...His place on the ticket, deriving from his reputation for integrity and in particular his conduct in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, may help reassure voters of Vice President Gore's own integrity and focus the campaign away from Bill Clinton and on other matters...

...Lieberman is clearly a man who has what once was called a political nature and discovered this in himself early...