To the Editor:

Eighty years ago, Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Tip O’Neill said, “All politics is local.” And, while much of the media coverage and public attention these days is on the federal level, I am convinced that the speaker’s often-cited phrase is as nearly as true today as it was in his time.

And, it is from this potential and my experience as a former local elected official and someone who has also been engaged in governmental activities at the state and even federal level over the past 40 years, that I believe we can have some hope for the future.

Because all (or most) politics is local, local elected officials, those at state and national levels too have an opportunity, a truly defining moment, to bring about the changes necessary to correct the ills of our system of politics and governance. The transformation needed will require the commitment, leadership, and personal and political will of politicians holding elected public offices and those in political parties.

The time is right for politics to change. The vast majority of opinion polls show that the public has lost confidence in elected officials, and that politicians are not trusted. Voter turnout for elections are at all-time lows. People are becoming more disenfranchised and alienated with each passing day. This downfall is monumental in our society, where citizen participation is a fundamental value.

Two-hundred-and-nineteen years ago, in 1796, in his Farewell Address to the Nation, President George Washington warned of politics and political parties: “They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.”

Unfortunately, President Washington’s warnings describe all too often what we see, hear, and read today.

Politics seems to be failing in so many critical ways that we need to ask: 1) Why should politics change? 2) Who can bring about that change? and 3) What must change?

Why: Politics is not an island unto itself. Politics is inseparable from and intertwined with government and has great influence over our lives. Politics (defined neutrally as “activities associated with government”) does the public a disservice when it is about money, power, and political success. People engaged in politics need to see their political institutions’ and their own highest calling as serving the public first and foremost.

Who: Elected representatives and political party leaders need to be the force leading to meaningful and lasting change. Crusading federal and state prosecutors are vitally important to help right the system when it goes astray, but the strength of these initiatives and the resolve of the people behind them will vary.

Strong legislation in various forms, such as campaign finance reform, is needed, too, but legislation can be changed. The practical reality is that politicians alone are positioned and empowered to create a new political culture — a culture that practices and honors being a statesman (or more inclusively speaking, a Statesperson).

Many fine people enter politics and run for office to do some good in our world, and some good is certainly done. These people are still function in the system.

But, over time, and subtly, a political system for survival and advancement too often built on power, money, endorsements by powerful people and political parties, and control by a few, sets the expectations, conformity, and mandates for political behavior. The current entrenched system for political survival, reward, and advancement needs to change in the direction of political courage, public service, and accomplishment.

What: Elected officials and the leaders of political parties need to set forth Guiding Principles for Politics — and then live by them. The principles must be based on public service trumping politics-as-usual.

They need to embrace broader participation, openness, encouraging and empowering individuality and the willingness to take political risk (even if that includes losing an office or power). Real change calls for burying the traditional political playbook and adopting a new culture — one that looks more outwardly toward service, and less inwardly toward self; one that recognizes and rewards elected officials and political party leaders who do their very best to be statespersons! (I know what it’s like in the heat of a political campaign to use strong rhetoric, but lose some perspective on the time served and contributions of opponents. Being a true statesperson calls for better than that.)

Change that matters is never quick or easy. But think of the rewards for government service and people when politics is part of the solution rather than an insurmountable problem. And think about the tremendous possibilities when becoming and being a politician is one of the highest callings anyone could aspire to or attain.

Sam Messina

Bethlehem

Editor’s note: Sam Messina has served as a Bethlehem Town Board member and town supervisor. Prior to that he worked for 26 years in New York State government (the departments of Environmental Conservation, Budget, Lottery and State) and he retired as State’s Director of Administration and Management.