Burris: We are our values

A reporter once asked Pope Francis if he was a “leftist.” The Pope replied, ”My friend, you are confused.”

That’s a really interesting response.

Especially since this seems to be the American political and religious right’s rap on Francis: He’s a leftie.

What did the Holy Father mean?

I think several things that are all one thing: He, Francis, is not in the left-right business. The message of Jesus transcends, is both higher and deeper, than right and left. The Church should not be reduced to, or divided by, what the Holy Father calls ideologies. Do not confuse ultimate truth with contemporary culture wars.

But, there is ultimate truth. And it has consequences.

Reinhold Niebuhr said: “Love is the motive. But justice is the instrument.”

Love, here, is not the love of Hallmark or “Love Story,” but charity.

“If I have not charity, I am nothing.”

Charity means good will toward men.

Charity means, in Abraham Lincoln’s words, “the bonds of affection.”

It means, the civic salve of mutual respect and regard.

Or, neighborliness, in the old-fashioned, Fred Rogers, way.

It means a kind of sociological “I and Thou” — I am unique and so are you.

So, the first assumption I make about my neighbor is that he is, if not good, decent. And if not just, fair.

Charity is the goal; the motive.

Decency is the instrument. Next, fairness. Something like justice, is the final and finest instrument, for persons and civilizations.

Few humans are saints.

Few societies are just.

But a real human being seeks to be fair.

And a humane society seeks to be ever more just.

This is the American ideal and story: Seeking a more perfect, more just, union.

Some people who watched the Democratic convention said that Kamala Harris should talk more about policy and plans.

A few Democrats have wished she was more heroic, like Barack Obama. (“Why am I not as excited as I was about Barack?” one person asked me.)

But policy and plans have little to do with the presidency.

The job is dealing with what comes up — mostly political and cultural melodrama and foreign and military crises.

Nothing prepares you for the presidency, though the vice presidency certainly helps.

No job is comparable, though mayor of New York City is pretty tough. And Supreme Allied Commander of allied forces in Europe was surely a preparation for Dwight Eisenhower.

But position papers and policy don’t determine a presidency.

They point to direction, and values, which do determine a presidency.

Values and character rule.

So I think Kamala Harris has been right to emphasize her values.

Right in small ball political terms. (She doesn’t get trapped.)

But also right, intellectually, and as an American leader.

She wants to lead us back to decency, fairness, and some measure of justice.

Call this opportunity economics, informed by compassion.

As Joe Biden says: Everyone deserves a shot.

Ms. Harris wants to complete the transition to normalcy — respect for law and for institutional and political norms. And then get us back on the glide path toward charity.

Only toward.

But forward.

I am glad she is not (so far) a messiah — a president who will allegedly change everything and make all things new, including all of us.

America is not broken.

It never was.

And it will not cease to exist if the “wrong person” is elected president.

But the country is stuck in division and gridlock.

It is bogged down in a kind of cultural civil war.

An autobiography of values is what Walter Lippmann called a “public philosophy.” This should precede and illuminate any plan (like the 2025 plan).

Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln all advocated policies. But they first had a public philosophy — a values system.

So did Jefferson.

So did Martin Luther King, Jr., who studied Niebuhr closely and invoked Jefferson.

John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump were charismatic savior figures, propelled by the cult of personality.

Ms. Harris has begun to sketch out for us her autobiography of values.

This, and not her thoughts on the tax code, is what we need to hear.

My Dad had a public philosophy. He used to say: “I am a union man, a Democrat, and a Catholic.” (In ascending order.)

My mother was Irish Catholic. She had two precepts: Up with those who are down. And: Be humble. There is far more that you do not know than you know.

This reminds me: There is also a need for a conservative public philosophy: Holding the Constitution and Bill of Rights in sacred regard; preferring present happiness to future utopia and adequacy to ambition; paying our debts; limits.

But there is no true conservatism in our politics today.

Our values are, finally, all we have and all that we are.

Niebuhr summarized his values as “Christian realism:” Charity our end and justice our means, in short, faltering steps.

Keith C. Burris is the former editor, vice president, and editorial director of Block Newspapers.

Contact him at burriscolumn@gmail.com.