The Deserted High Road

“‘The essence of our breakdown in politics is the mentality that I’m right and you’re totally wrong,’ said former Senator John Danforth, Republican of Missouri. ‘And because I’m so sure that I’m right and you’re totally wrong, I am justified in destroying you as a person.’

“The absence of humility, Mr. Danforth said, can poison any chance for a collaborative culture. 

“He is hardly the first to suggest this. ‘Those who travel the high road of humility in Washington, D.C., are not bothered by heavy traffic,’ said former Senator Alan Simpson, Republican of Wyoming, in a 2018 eulogy for President George Bush. It is a familiar adage around the capital, if rarely heeded.”

—Mark Leibovich, columnist, “The Untraveled High Road of Humility, and a President Laid Low,” The Washington Post, Oct. 5, 2020. (Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Ferrell)

• Editorial Comment: There used to be Decency Lane, too, near Responsibility Road.

 

 

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“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard