Moral cliff

One of the most repeated terms used in our media recently is “fiscal cliff.” Many media outlets have been chewing and spitting out the same stuff over and over. I wonder if I am the only one who is sick and tired of hearing the same shallow arguments and sickening partisan bickering around the issue. We are bombarded by various media outlets with sensational nonsense. They constantly ponder over what it is, whether it will happen or not, who needs to compromise and blah, blah and more blah.

If you judge the U.S. in general and the American government in particular only through the pictures of these fiscal cliff debates, one can argue that we are not only heading to a possible fiscal cliff, but that more importantly we are heading toward a moral one. The symbolic language used by relevant political and civic camps when discussing the issue doesn’t reveal the best of us at all. Honestly speaking, this process shakes my confidence about our ability as Americans to confront future challenges.

Thank God that the U.S. and our government are bigger than this fiscal cliff debate disaster. But we should not fail to look at these troubling manifestations of us, as a nation, through these debates and take very careful mental notes. Because the picture we present reveals important information about what we have become as a society and where we are heading.

One of the most disturbing things that the current fiscal cliff conversations reveal about us is how divided and polarized we have become as a nation. No national interest, common enemy or mutual benefit seems to be powerful enough to bring our political and civic leaders together. Our leaders seemingly treat every issue as an opportunity to score a point on behalf of their camp. Recently, I asked a very senior member of the House whether during his long career in D.C. he had ever seen or heard so much polarization and partisanship. His said “no” without hesitation. He also added, “To my knowledge it has never been this bad at any part of our political history.”

If this non-compromising, I-will-make-you-fail-whatever-it-takes attitude becomes the way we do business in our political system, what kind of future awaits our country? Trying to block and defeat your opponent—insisting on staying in your ideological and political trenches even if it hurts the national interest and makes life more difficult for fellow Americans—is beyond horrible. However, that’s the unhelpful theater game that we all have been watching lately in our nation’s capital and beyond.

In addition, it disturbs me that the way we discuss this fiscal cliff issue suggests and even demands that what we all are debating and discussing is only an economic and financial issue. As if it is all about how to keep the books straight by finding the best formula for an accounting question. As if what we are discussing is fundamentally not our collective moral and ethical values. Again, why don’t we debate this fiscal cliff as a moral crisis?

I am not sure if we are going to fall off an economic cliff at the end of this month. But history shows over and over again that the nations that do not address and face their potential moral cliffs in an early stage lose their collective health. Let us hold our leaders and ourselves accountable for much higher ethical and moral standards. Let us remind them that we didn’t elect them to win the boxing game with their opponents but to instead get the work done, and get it done well. Fiscal cliffs, economic depressions and financial hard times come and go. We may not get the opportunity to recover and bounce back if we let ourselves fall off every moral cliff.

Abdullah Antepli is the Muslim Chaplain and an adjunct faculty of Islamic Studies. This is his final column of the semester.