By Lea Kahn
There was a time when politics was considered an honorable profession that attracted the best and the brightest to the field, according to former Gov. Thomas H. Kean.
Politicians were respected. They brought hope and optimism to their constituents, and an expectation that life would be better for the next generation, Gov. Kean said last week. He spoke at the “Governing New Jersey” series, sponsored by Rider University’s Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics.
But the state of politics today is not the hopeful and optimistic one he recalled, both as the child of a political figure and as a political figure in his own right, said Gov. Kean. He served as governor between 1982 and 1990, following a stint in the state Legislature.
”Politics is as difficult and complicated as any time I can remember,” said Gov. Kean. It is not possible to solve political problems without “political wonks,” who feel politics is a calling, he said at the Feb. 23 session.
The 75-year-old former Republican governor said he was brought up in a different era. Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, and he was respected and honored, said Gov. Kean, whose father served in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1939 and 1959.
And then there was John F. Kennedy, Gov. Kean said. President Kennedy looked at Gov. Kean’s generation and told them that the highest calling they could have was politics. It was important to serve one’s country.
”I believed him, and I still do,” Gov. Kean said.
The country was optimistic, he said, but the assassinations of President Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. changed the mood of the country. All of that optimism and excitement was gone, he said.
The Vietnam War also had an impact. It was divisive and split the country apart. It pitted fathers against sons and police officers against college students who protested the war. There was an anger that lasted for years, he said.
The resignation of President Richard M. Nixon contributed to the pessimism over politics, he said. The country basked in optimism however briefly when Ronald Reagan was elected president, he added.
But pessimism has returned and there is “deep disillusionment,” Gov. Kean said. The problems facing New Jersey and the United States seem “unsolvable,” he said, adding that elected officials do not seem to be up to the job of fixing them.
Gov. Kean pointed to budget issues, upheaval in the Middle East and terrorism. Those issues cannot be resolved unless there is a political system and politicians who are geared to deal with them not politicians who are more concerned with the next election, he said.
”What’s wrong with our politicians?” Gov. Kean asked.
They do not speak to each other in a civil manner, and the political center has been lost, he said.
Gov. Kean said that when his father, former U.S. Rep. Robert Kean, served in the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats and Republicans spoke to one another. They attended parties together and socialized, getting to know one another on a personal level, he said.
When they had to reach across the political aisle to work together, they did, he said. Today, they do not see each other and “if you don’t know each other, it’s hard to work together,” he added.
Gov. Kean said that when he served in the state Legislature, he had just as many Democratic friends as Republican friends. They attended each other’s weddings, baptisms and funerals. They were close friends, he said.
”That’s the way it should be,” Gov. Kean said.
Then he pointed to the 9/11 Commission, which he chaired. The 10-member commission was made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, but when the commission met for the first time, the Democrats sat together and the Republicans sat together, he said.
Gov. Kean told them that if they did not mingle, he would assign seats. Encouraged by the governor and led by his example, they began to socialize and get to know one another. They began to bond, he said.
Political polarization and the loss of political moderates in the center have not helped, Gov. Kean said. In the past, politicians were not necessarily of the left or the right, and maybe they could be talked into supporting a program sponsored by the other party, he said.
”In those days, no one was governed by political ideology,” Gov. Kean said.
But that political center is disappearing, he said. When there is a difficult vote, the senator and the congressman are under pressure. They are told that if they do not vote a certain way, they could face a fight in the their party’s primary.
And that is the current state of politics, Gov. Kean said.
It is important to fix those problems so “the brightest and the best” will enter politics, he said. He noted that when he was president of Drew University, he taught politics and would ask his students if they would run for office. Most were not interested because they were concerned about their reputations.
”If we don’t make changes, we will have decisions made by people we can’t respect, who do it for themselves. It’s a difficult, difficult problem, but we can fix it. People can be friends and work together Democrats and Republicans. We have to get back to that,” Gov. Kean said.
