Now more than ever, candidates deserve our support

Declaring candidacy for public office is not for the faint of heart. Voters often take for granted those who make the decision to run for office and open up their private lives to the scrutiny of the media and the general public. All aspects of life and career are on display.

President Theodore Roosevelt owns the most eloquent quote about those who run and hold public office, and the credit due them for entering the public arena. His speech, delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1910, was intended as a shot across the bow at cynics who criticized those trying to make the world a better place. Although it was billed as “Citizenship in a Republic,” it would become better known as “The Man in the Arena,” speech, and an excerpt from it would go down in history as a go-to quote for public figures, sports personalities and others, including Nelson Mandela and Richard Nixon in his resignation speech.

As we approach the May primary in Idaho, Roosevelt’s tribute serves as a reminder to participate in the defining characteristic of a democracy — the electoral process. It also serves to acknowledge the contributions challengers and incumbents make by running for office and debating the issues voters will ultimately decide at the polls. Although I would not normally include a quote of such size in this column, it perfectly underscores the importance of supporting and respecting the candidates of your choice.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

In Roosevelt’s arena, newspapers played a key role in reporting campaign events. Candidates delivered speeches before throngs of well-wishers and party faithful, often from the back end of a train rolling through town. Roosevelt used the train to deliver 673 speeches while traveling more than 21,000 miles.

Today, candidates who can afford it use the airwaves of TV and radio to reach voters, and social media offers candidates yet another medium to promote their candidacies. But even in our digital world, candidates still rely on getting the word out by meeting voters at the door, in the community where they “press the flesh” as the saying goes. But that kind of retail politicking is very difficult to pull off in our current lives.

Even the Statesman abandoned its usual interviews in the editorial board room and took to Zoom to interview candidates for the primary election this month. An impressive number of candidates stepped forward to run for office in what has to be the strangest election season in American history. With candidates abandoning traditional campaigning, they can resort to the dreaded robocalls and use their websites as fonts of information about their backgrounds and positions on the issues, but they still find themselves campaigning from home.

Listening to and watching people present their candidacies from home reminds me of President Warren Harding’s run for the White House. His campaign, which produced a landslide victory, took place on his front porch and became a staple in most high school American history books. Although it worked for Harding and Zoom worked for the Statesman editorial board, it’s still too early in our new online existence, even with social media options available to the candidates, to imagine how candidates can reach voters as effectively as they could if they were out in their communities.

Consequently, voters, without an extra effort to learn more about the candidates, may be going to the polls this month with less information than ever before in Idaho elections.

Not all candidates can rely on TV and radio ads to bolster their candidacies. At the state and local level, they are often not realistic options for candidates. From the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates down to present day, there is no substitute for that personal touch. Imagine how much would have been lost in the recent and spirited mayoral race if people could not have opened up their homes to hear from candidates on the issues and if candidates did not have the opportunity to meet and listen to voters.

Without the benefit of meeting voters at the door, on the street, at a political party meeting or rally, or a candidates forum, candidates struggle to get their message out. Confined to the home office, challengers face an even tougher climb this year without the ability to compensate for the advantage incumbents enjoy by virtue of name recognition built up over years in public office.

Legend has it that Ben Franklin upon leaving the Constitutional Convention in 1787 was asked by a bystander, “Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” The best way to “keep it” is know your candidates and support them. You might start by checking the editorial endorsements of the Statesman. Then, vote in the May primary for the men and women who enter the arena in a most difficult campaign season and, paraphrasing Roosevelt’s words, who spend themselves in a worthy cause.