Good Faith, Bad Faith, American Faith
I’ve been thinking about faith a bit. Not religious faith though. It’s an important distinction because I find that people lump any kind of faith in with religious faith. Religious faith is specific to religion and God. There are other ways to have faith, and in order to agree on how we have discourse, we have to understand that.
Let’s start with good faith. When we talk to each other, if we know we are not being honest, that is not good faith. That is bad faith. Seems simple, right? The hard part is that it’s up to the person who is speaking or acting, to be honest about their intentions. When I try to go on a diet, which I’ve done many times, I have sometimes given it a good faith effort. That means I really did my best each day to stay away from foods that are not good for me, to control portion size, and to choose healthy options. Other times, I would tell myself I earned the brownie and it was ok. That was not in good faith.
It’s not so hard to understand the difference. It’s more difficult to attain. It’s a standard. A standard above what might be self-serving or self-satisfying. The reason I’m thinking about this is that in our American democracy, we elect people to a government office. They are government officials, but that is a position first and foremost of public servant. This is a particular distinction. Service of the public is a public trust. It is a trust that those who hold a position of elected or appointed office will act in good faith. They will be transparent and accountable to the people. They will act in good faith.
What got me thinking about this was Senator Rand Paul questioning Dr. Anthony Fauci yesterday.
Senator Paul consistently gaslights Dr. Fauci and attempts to smear him personally. It is dangerous and that is proven by the threats Dr. Fauci and his family have faced. Disagree with someone on policy, but to attack them as a person, and you are acting in bad faith. You are distracting from the policy because there isn’t an argument against the policy. Senator Paul is sowing doubt and division about vaccine mandates and mask mandates. Why? The science is on Dr. Fauci’s side, but it’s more than that. This is an issue that causes a wedge with the public. There doesn’t need to be more than that. That is enough for Senator Paul to want to light a match.
When elected officials take office they swear an oath.
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.” (Oath of Office)
I don’t like that it ends with “So help me God.” That may offend some people, but I think everyone should care about the infusion of religion into our democratic customs. Why are we putting the word God into this oath, the pledge of allegiance, and on currency? The first amendment doesn’t just protect the freedom to have religion, but the freedom from it.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” (US Constitution, Amendment I)
Our government must be free of religion, in order to stay neutral and ensure that no religion is pushed upon its citizens. It doesn’t matter if 80%, 90%, or 99% of our citizens subscribe to one faith. Every person has an inherent constitutional right to subscribe to religious faith or not. If we don’t strictly abide by that freedom, we leave the door open to religious indoctrination.
The middle of the oath talks about faithfully discharging duties of the office. This is implied to be good faith. To me, the oath of office is missing a huge component to it. It is missing any tangible consequences to breaking it. I would like to see the oath of office, for all elected and appointed officials, come with the weight of swearing under oath in a court of law. It should be a crime to lie to the American public, from an elected or appointed office. This should come with contempt, fines, and removal from office in egregious or persistent attempts to deceive the public.
This to me, is what American faith is, or should be, about. It’s about having faith in our democracy, by entrusting the people who are elected and appointed to office. The trust is that we are giving fellow citizens power, which they in turn have a duty to give to the public. They are servants to the public good and have a sworn duty to do that in good faith.
There have been seeds of distrust sown in our democracy, particularly in our elections, over the past 6 years. When we look at those who seek to cast doubt, it is important to ask a simple binary question. Are they raising this alarm because there is an issue of fraud or corruption in our electoral system, or because they cannot win an election and need to discredit the outcome? Without asking that question, we cannot consider whether the premise of the allegation has any standing.
Elections are monitored at a local and state level across our country, and non-partisan government officials have been overseeing them since this country was formed. I worked at a county Board of Elections right out of college and got to see firsthand how non-partisan it is. I was hired by the Democratic Commissioner. There was also a Republican Commissioner. That sounds partisan, but by having commissioners from both sides of the aisle a non-partisan office is ensured. The work I did, and all BOE employees do, is 100% about data accuracy and ensuring that everything is checked and rechecked.
There is an abundance of data to show that our elections are secure and that voter fraud is incredibly rare. What’s more, when voter fraud happens it is usually found out through audits and checks that are already in place. Some narratives are pushed that mail-in voting is ripe for voter fraud, but there is no evidence to back up this assertion. Some states have been voting by mail for years. Every 10 years we fill out a census. It is a crime not to fill it out and mail it in. Voting can and should be done the same way. Voting in person is great, and many citizens take pride in going to a polling place and voting at a booth. There are also many who have challenges in getting to a polling place on a specific day and/or time. These can include challenges of child care or elder care, transportation, disabilities, ailments, work constraints, or other considerations.
Our American democracy is built on the will of the American public and any attempt to subvert that will is not just in bad faith, it is against the constitution and our democracy as a whole. A law that suppresses the ability for any individual to cast a ballot, is a subversion of their will to have equal representation in our government. The right to vote is not just that the right exists. If one citizen has more access to their ballot than another, then there is not an equal right to vote. If one vote is weighted more than another vote, then there is not an equal vote. For the will of the people to be affirmed, there must be equal access, and our election laws must protect that at all costs.
Voting rights are now up for debate in our US Senate. Without voting rights protections at the federal level, current state-level voter suppression laws will subvert the will of the American public. Those laws are in bad faith and they go against the very fiber of what I believe is core to the American faith. This is the time to call your Senators and implore them to back voting rights (US Senate DC Switchboard: (202) 224–3121). We critically need protections including mail-in voting for all citizens, an end to gerrymandering, and an end to dark money. Some have decided that money equates to speech, but speech is inherently spoken aloud. It is not silent. Dark money allows elected officials to hide what influences them and who is backing their representation in our government.
If our elected officials are to act in good faith, they must protect voting rights across the country and ensure that the will of the people is in fact the totality of our American faith.
