**Edit September 4, 2021 – This article was written just before the Bucks County Commissioners decided to completely lose their minds, discredit Dr. Damsker, and try to take full control of Public Health authority which they do not have. As of September 2021, The Bucks County Commissioners have clearly put their politics well ahead of their principles, making this article obsolete. I am leaving the article up for posterity and transparency, despite no longer believing in the main theme that the Commissioners deserve praise.
One of the most common presumptions in Western civilization is the notion that democracy is inherently righteous. Here in modern-day America, you’d be hard-pressed to find any opposition to the idea. Since the advent of American hegemony following World War II, democracy has become practically synonymous with the concept of basic human rights. To most people, the issue is as clear as the sky is blue. Of course democracy is good. One citizen, one vote. It’s fair.
But that presupposition has not always been the case. Socrates, the grandfather of Western philosophy, opposed democracy by using the Ship of State metaphor in which he compared the governed population to a ship at sea and argued that the ship must be captained by a competent leader who understands seafaring and navigation. He said that a democratic sea voyage would end in disaster, because the crew would make decisions based on their individual emotions rather than on what is best for the whole ship. Ironically, Socrates was eventually sentenced to death by a very democratic jury of hundreds of Athenians.
Not surprisingly, criticism of democracy didn’t die with Socrates when he drank the hemlock. His best pupil, Plato, would go on to become the most influential philosopher of all time–and just so happen to prefer aristocracy over democracy. He, in turn, mentored Aristotle, the father of the scientific method, who shared the same opinion. Since antiquity, scores of philosophers have cautioned Western civilization against the dangers of democracy, particularly its vulnerability to demagoguery (*important*). Demagoguery is what happens when people put politics over principles in order to win elections.
Distrust of democracy remained a guiding principle all the way up to the Age of Enlightenment, which saw the birth of the systems of governance we use today (i.e. Republicanism based on separation of powers). At that time, there was a large philosophical chasm between classical republicanism and modern republicanism. The former sought to mitigate the dangers of democracy (namely mob rule and propagandization), while the latter was simply anxious to usher in the age of philosophical liberalism. Some of the most brilliant thinkers of all time–Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Kant–all argued in favor of a classical form of Republicanism that prioritized the preservation of basic human rights over equal representation in government. In many cases they even argued for monarchy and/or oligarchy, as counter-weights to democracy in a mixed government. This is where the concept of separation of powers was borne.
The birth of the USA was subject to similar political debate. Many Founding Fathers like John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison preferred oligarchy over majority rule. Their distrust of pure representative democracy (i.e. one citizen, one vote) was reflected in the strict voting requirements that only allowed white, male land-owners to vote for the first century of American history–an oligarchy of sorts.
To make matters worse, the rise of Americanism coincided with the development of party-based voting, a political innovation that exacerbates the issue of demagoguery by slowly shifting political parties further apart. I hope that everyone reading this today, whether Democrat or Republican, can agree that the two sides of the aisle have never been further apart in our life times. This is not a good thing for anyone.
The perpetual distrust that historical philosophers and statesmen have had for democracy seems to be based on their brilliant understanding of human nature and all of its flaws–the greatest of which is the propensity to put emotion over reason. Enlightenment thinker David Hume said it best in his Treatise of Human Nature: “The reason is, and ought to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.“
Simply put, our current situation is what all of those philosophers warned us about. Our system of governance puts politics over principle by default, in order to win elections and maintain power. Think of it as a political form of natural selection: a party that engages in demagoguery will win elections and grow in influence; a party that doesn’t will lose elections and eventually cease to exist. What we are left with is large machinery that’s more focused on appealing to emotions than on serving the People’s best interests. As Socrates’ Ship of State metaphor would put it, everyone is worried about their own form of mutiny; no one is steering the ship to where it needs to go.
The Perfect Political Wedge: COVID-19
Against that backdrop, consider the implications of COVID-19. I can’t think of any social issue in my lifetime that has offered greater access to people’s raw emotions. Because of the nature of viral disease (i.e. human-to-human transmission), the issue almost instantly settled into perfect alignment with our two-party system.
- Liberals, who tend to be more collectivist by nature, aligned themselves together in pursuit of “the greater good”. Their emotions sought to place the well-being of the collective over the well-being of individuals.
- Conservatives, who tend to be more individualist by nature, aligned themselves together in pursuit of “individual liberty”. Their emotions sought to place the well-being of individuals over the well-being of the collective.
Both sides were equally fearful, but of very different things. Both sides were ripe for propaganda, which proliferated widely and continues to do so today. Both sides were hypnotized by demagogues, a term that many people might be justified in applying to me. Both sides became ruled by primitive emotions such as fear and anxiety.
Today, the two sides of the American political spectrum have drifted so far apart, based on COVID, that they seemingly want to live in different worlds. For example, there are Bucks County parents seeking to segregate kids in school based on whether or not they are masked or vaccinated. Similarly, I and a few of my friends created Bucks County Sports Association specifically so that kids could play sports without having to ever see or think about masks. Scores of people are moving to entirely new states in order to better align with their COVID views.
So does this political apartheid have to be our destiny?
Are we doomed to continue spiraling further and further apart?
Will COVID-19 keep us fighting each other forever?
The experience of other democratic nations says “no“. Two nations in particular, New Zealand and Sweden, represent Western democracies that governed with strength during COVID-19 and did it in very different ways. While American conservatives would praise Sweden’s response and American liberals would praise New Zealand’s response, the fact is that both countries enjoy a very high degree of public satisfaction with their handling of the crisis. They avoided tumultuous internal division by taking decisive action in one direction and sticking with it. They put principles above politics and it paid off.
Here in America, it seems almost impossible for leaders to put principles above politics. Every major American institution–media, religion, academia, entertainment–has been propagandized one way or the other. The two-party system has made us fearful of each other, creating fertile ground for demagogues. Even worse, the two-party system has incentivized elected officials to put party loyalty above loyalty to the People. For a long time, these flaws have been hidden by America’s prosperity. Now, COVID has laid them bare.
Despite these flaws in our systems, Bucks County has somewhat miraculously shown that it is possible to put principles above politics in America, leading to good governance. The proof comes from the Bucks County Government.
Purple Politics
As a key swing county in a key swing state, Bucks County is uniquely positioned at the confluence of American politics. Lower Bucks leans Democrat, Upper Bucks leans Republican, and Central Bucks straddles the middle. The County has voted for the Democrat candidate in every Presidential election since 1992, but at the same time the County Government was a Republican stronghold until 2019. In that year, Democrats finally seized power in Doylestown by winning 2 of the 3 County Commissioner seats. The County is an almost 1-to-1 mapping of Congressional District PA-01, which is precariously held by Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick. The elected District Attorney is a Republican, while the elected Sheriff is a Democrat.
All of this to say: Bucks is more immune to demagoguery than your average American county. By having mixed representation from both parties, the county maintains a very moderate approach to governance. Nearly all county-level elected officials, whether Democrat or Republican, are forced to govern as moderates regardless of their true beliefs, because the moderate position is the only one that can win county-wide elections. This has had a profound effect on the way Bucks County has dealt with COVID-19 as compared to neighboring counties.
The Sheriff
Take, for example, one of Bucks County’s truest heroes of the past year and a half: Sheriff Milt Warrell. As an elected Democrat, you can imagine the pressure he feels from his party to use COVID-19 to his (and his party’s) advantage. Instead of doing that, he firmly put his principles front and center by issuing the following statement at the outset:
This choice to put principles before politics is immeasurably honorable, but it comes with a heavy cost. Because it is not the “moderate” position for a Democrat to take, it cost Sheriff Warrell his job. In an extremely rare and frowned upon move, the Democrat party ran a primary opponent against him this year, knocking him out of contention for re-election. Sheriff Warrell put his principles above his politics, and he paid for it dearly.
The Congressman
On the other side of the political spectrum sits Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick. It is well known that Fitzpatrick is one of the most “independent” people in Congress. He intentionally utilizes a very moderate approach as his strategy to keep the Congressional seat in Republican hands. In order to do this, he often has to set aside his own principles in favor of political expediency. Bucks County rewards his moderate strategy, including last November when he won re-election by over 13 percentage points. For reference, hard-red Republicans in deep-red districts sometimes don’t even win by such margins. The fact that Fitzpatrick can pull off such political dominance is a testament to just how skilled of a politician he is, and how truly moderate Bucks County is.
When it comes to COVID-19, Fitzpatrick has successfully avoided the major landmines out there. Despite believing that the hysteria is quite a bit unwarranted, he avoids the issue so as to remain unoffensive to as many potential voters as possible. It’s a tactic that is directly in line with his overall political strategy, and he’s executed it perfectly. Neither side of the COVID-19 debate has much reason to give him heat. His hands are clean. Recently he has ever so gently begun to test the waters with his toe, by publicly questioning the mainstream narrative of COVID’s origins. I hope to see much more of this from Congressman Fitzpatrick in the future, but I won’t be holding my breath.
Now, nobody would accuse Congressman Fitzpatrick of being a demagogue. That term is generally reserved for rabble-rousers, whether they come from the political right, like President Trump, or from the political left, like Governor Wolf. But consider what demagoguery of the middle would look like. In a very moderate electorate like Bucks County, demagoguery would have to be…moderate. It would come from someone who has firm beliefs, but sets them aside in favor of speaking what his moderate constituents want to hear. It would look a lot like Congressman Fitzpatrick.
Make no mistake about it: there is very little principled about his moderate positions, especially when compared to his true beliefs. Instead, his moderate position is just a form of political appeal-to-emotion, targeted at the moderate nature of Bucks County. And it works extremely well, at least every May and November of even-numbered years.
The Commissioners
In the 2019 municipal election, long-time Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia was joined by first-term Commissioner Bob Harvie, giving Democrats a 2-of-3 majority on the Bucks County Commissioners for the first time in over 40 years. Republicans became the minority party in Bucks County, with Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo filling the 3rd seat. This was a huge moment for Bucks County Democrats.
Left: Gene DiGirolamo
Middle: Diane Ellis-Marseglia
Right: Robert Harvie
Just months later, they were presented with the most politically-charged issue of our lifetimes: COVID-19. As everyone knows, Democrats all over the USA, including Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, jumped at the chance to consolidate power in the form of “big government” mandates and handouts. Marseglia and Harvie didn’t.
As early as Spring of 2020, they exhibited resistance to Governor Wolf’s various mandates that shuttered small businesses. They requested that the Governor allow local leaders, at the county level, to make their own decisions. It became clear from the start that they had little interest in pursuing the hard-line Democrat approach that was sweeping the nation. They knew that a moderate approach was more appropriate for Bucks County.
Most importantly, from the very beginning the Bucks County Commissioners have supported Dr. David Damsker, the Director of the Bucks County Health Department. Their support is anything but a foregone conclusion, as Dr. Damsker was appointed in 2008 by Republican leadership and has led the Health Department through several Republican-led county governments.
In a situation like this, it may have been easy for the Commissioners to replace Dr. Damsker with a more politically-aligned Health Director. They could have chosen to saddle up with Governor Wolf, and take the sweet handouts and backroom deals that come with that. But they didn’t. They somehow found a way to maintain some level of independence from Harrisburg, and they stood firmly behind Dr. Damsker while they did it. The results really speak for themselves. Dr. Damsker succeeded in keeping Bucks County businesses and schools open much more than neighboring counties–and he did it with comparable COVID-19 metrics.
So this, folks, is where the rubber meets the road. Have the Commissioners stuck with Dr. Damsker based on their principles, or their politics? Is it simply another example of political expediency to cater to the moderate nature of Bucks County? Or do the Democrat Commissioners actually agree with Dr. Damsker’s calm, measured approach?
I have to believe, after all that has transpired, that our County Commissioners truly do view COVID-19 through the same lens that Dr. Damsker and the common people of Bucks County do. Commissioner Marseglia, in particular, is well-known to be a strong advocate of mental health and suicide prevention, stemming from her daughter’s tragic suicide. I experienced similar tragedy when I lost my younger brother to suicide four years ago. It’s possible that my own bias clouds my vision, but I am inclined to believe that mental health advocacy strongly predisposes someone to reject COVID-19 hysteria.
Maybe I’m wrong about this. Maybe Marseglia and Harvie are hardcore Team Apocalypse, but have been told to stay moderate by Democrat party power brokers. Maybe they are making backroom deals that we don’t know about. Maybe they secretly despise Dr. Damsker and plan to fire him any day now. It’s hard to know what is truly in people’s hearts.
But as of today, the Commissioners’ actions over the last 18 months tell me that they are with the People of Bucks County and with Dr. Damsker. If they were unprincipled, they could easily discard him despite the fact that his guidance has been proven correct. Their chosen path of governance related to COVID-19 indicates that they have principles and they are willing to put those principles above politics. If at any point that changes, then so be it, but for now they have my admiration.
At the Ship’s Helm
Now there’s one last thing I’d like to leave you with: let’s compare Republican Congressman Fitzpatrick to Democrat Commissioners Marseglia and Harvie. One of the most common attacks leveled against ReOpen Bucks is that we are a simple, partisan outfit. We push a Republican agenda, so they say. Well how is this for Republican agenda…
Congressman Fitzpatrick has made the calculated decision to avoid COVID-19 issues, despite his own personal beliefs on the topic. He does what politicians in Bucks County usually do: maintain the moderate position and avoid offensive issues at all costs. To put it another way, he puts his politics over his principles, and that strategy continues to pay him big political dividends.
Commissioners Marseglia and Harvie, on the other hand, have done the equal opposite. By supporting Dr. Damsker and standing up to Governor Wolf, they have shown a potential willingness to put their principles first, and this deserves extreme commendation. Whereas Congressman Fitzpatrick believes one thing but does another, the Commissioners appear to be acting directly upon their beliefs. I am not yet sure if this will help or hurt them politically, but I feel that it is worthy of praise.
In order to restore our democracy back to good health, we must heed the warnings of all those philosophers who came before us. We must empower the type of people who lead with principle, even if those principles aren’t exactly in perfect alignment with our own. I can probably find a hundred reasons that I, a strong conservative, would disagree with Commissioners Marseglia and Harvie. But when I think about who I want steering the Ship of Bucks County, I’m glad to have them at the helm. I’ll take the captain that can lead with principles over the one who can’t any day of the week.
