A friend planned on hosting a gathering for Matt Salmon, the five-term Republican representative from Mesa seeking the governorship, and I decided to attend.
It was time for this skeptical citizen to go meet a new face. I emerged saying this man is to be taken seriously.
Salmon, 64, said the right things, sure, but many politicians do, as do university administrators, a fraternity to which he belongs. The questions of the hour: Did he know the right things and, if he did, would he do the right things?
These questions, while so simple, actually put in high-relief the critical question of credibility on issues facing the American public.
Was what Rep. Salmon saying based on a firm foundation of knowledge, principles and ideals by which he would govern? Or was this a man regurgitating what his audience wanted to hear? Was this a human parrot or a thinker?
We have learned, through sad experience, what happens when a well-intentioned candidate, one whom we like, and who seems to share values, does not have that foundation.
That foundation? An understanding and belief in the “American Creed,” as Jefferson penned in the Declaration of Independence, a grasp of the Constitution, the proper role of government at each level; federalism; what made us great; what diminishes that greatness, and so on.
Scant few of our elected officers know these things, or if they do, seldom put into actions their beliefs.
The reality is, however, that most don’t know, or care, and haven’t considered or studied them.
This is not the first time yours truly has questioned a candidate on the basics. After all, how do we maintain exceptionalism if those in charge don’t even understand the ingredients that have made us so.
The answer? It can’t be done and therein lies the principal reason for our decline.
How do we condemn this ignorance in leadership, however, when so few of us know these issues, either? Naturally, we vote poorly and have no way to hold those elected accountable. If we don’t even know the standard, how do we hold people to it?
We get what we deserve.
A case-in-point and that is still lingering:
Look at how miserably we did as a country during COVID; that, alone, demonstrates just how we’ve lost track of the guiding principles we once revered and implemented.
Our trampling of tenets once embraced is shameful and painful. Emergency executive powers? Erring on the side of liberty? Individual, unalienable rights? Representation by state legislatures? Each of these has been abused, subverted, pummeled, diminished, while we look on with feigned lamentation.
Leadership starts from the top. The last eight years have informed us that a knowledgeable and principled governor would have made all the difference. Instead, debris from this catastrophic era is evident daily.
The irony? These wounds are self-inflicted, results NOT of COVID but our reaction to it.
So, in my one-on-one interview with Rep. Salmon, I asked the tough questions with the expectation of stumping.
Guess what? I am delighted to say how wrong a hunch could be.
The man has a broad understanding of our founding, the Constitution and what made us great.
He understands his proper role, if elected, and he articulates how we would have been governed during the pandemic. He grasps the state’s role in a federal system and the limits to Washington’s power. His vision of what needs to be done in Arizona is thorough and compelling.
While knowledge doesn’t guarantee exceptional governance, we are certainly doomed without it. A knowledgeable man, at least, has the foundation to do what is right. After that That’s when courage kicks in.
While I have just known Rep. Salmon a short while, I am convinced he is the right person for the job.
I am convinced he will govern by principles and ideals based on his knowledge of government’s proper role and its limits, and not default to those shortcuts of expediency that George Washington feared would be the onset of our destruction.