The opening words of the constitution of the United States of America are:
We the people of the united states, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.
Notice that the first of the six stated purposes of the constitution is “to form a more perfect union”.
Since the goal was to form a more perfect union, presumably what union that then existed was less than perfect. And, in spite of all of our efforts over all the years to form a more perfect union (since the constitution was ratified in 1788), the union now existing is still less than perfect.
The United States—like most great enterprises—is still a work in progress. In that sense a country is just like you and me and every other human person. We are all works in progress.
We are still striving to form a more perfect union, and we shouldn’t be so surprised that we haven’t achieved it yet.
All our goals and ideals are, so to speak, carrots on the stick in front of us. We must never neglect striving to attain them and never despair that we haven’t yet fully attained them.
This applies to each of our lives, plans, projects, and institutions.
We’re good Americans if we defend and follow our agreed upon constitution, laws, and customs—even if we personally don’t entirely agree with every detail and aspect of them. And, we have the right to argue in favor of what we think is right and against what we think is wrong.
We’re all engaged in the never-ending struggle to form a more perfect union.
The struggle to form a more perfect union applies to many things besides the political organization of the United States.
Presumably it applies to all countries and governments in one way or another—as well as to all organizations and corporations, all common human enterprises, religions, associations, and families. It’s part of the human condition, of your life, my life, and that of each and every one of us.
A familiar and vitally important technique and tool for forming a more perfect union is to compromise—to settle differences and disagreements by mutual concessions, to reach agreements by adjusting and modifying conflicting claims and demands.
When you compromise, it doesn’t mean you’ve changed your mind or abandoned what you have been struggling to achieve. It means you’re striving to reach some common agreement, to achieve what is possible, even though it may be less than what you want, or what you aspire to, or what you believe is right.
Politics is sometimes referred to as the art of the possible. In that sense, we are all challenged to be “good politicians”. A fanatical attachment to the impossible may, at first blush, appear to be exemplary, but it really isn’t.
We are all engaged, ever engaged, with a persistent, ongoing struggle to form a more perfect union.
We all need to constantly examine the ideals and beliefs that motivate us and the behaviors that characterize us, accommodating them to the real situation.
Paradoxically, we need to keep struggling to achieve the “impossible dream” and trying to be politically correct in the process!
18 September 2022