Former senator Ben Sasse has always lived by his own playbook, one shaped by his deep Calvinist Christian faith.
Always down to earth and closely in touch with the people he serves, in 2015 Sasse famously declared to the other senators in his maiden speech, “The people despise us all because we are not doing our job,” becoming enmeshed in petty politics instead of focusing on real pressing issues.
Now Sasse faces a diagnosis of terminal cancer, and true to form, he’s living these months in his own unique way — “called” to share his story publicly.
His recent interview with The New York Times’ Ross Douthat went viral for Sasse’s unexpected regrets, which included not treating Sundays differently than other days and not living down the block from his family.
Now he’s made an appearance on 60 Minutes, where he’s shared characteristically forthright thoughts on politics, faith, and a life well-lived. Here are a few things he shared.
1Your national party should be your least important political community
“I think our national political dysfunction is an echo of larger problems,” he said, especially the lack of authentic, rich community:
I think we have really thin, shallow community right now, and unless people know the thickness of their local community, it's hard to make sense of what national politics are for…
I think your fundamental political community is your neighborhood and your city hall and maybe even your state legislature. And right now, we are sacrificing a lot of our national politics to weird folks who want their main community to be their political tribe at a federal level. And that should be like the ninth thing or the 15th thing you care about, not the first or second thing.
He considers himself a Republican precisely because he believes that local community is far more important than national politics:
I'm a Republican because I think the Lincoln-Reagan continuum does the best job of building constraint on thinking Washington is our fundamental political community.
Take a look at a Catholic social doctrine principle called "subsidiarity" to shed light on his views.
2Being called “dad,” “neighbor,” or “friend” matters more than any title in Washington
Sasse made the highly unusual move of quitting his senate term with four years left. “Many senators I know would not be able to breathe without that job,” his interviewer, Scott Pelley, said.
Sasse quickly replied that being a good friend or family member — a good human — is so much more worthwhile than being a senator:
I fear that that is true, and that is a sign of a much, much deeper problem. We’ve got a lot of people who serve in government who really do think the highest and greatest thing you can ever do is have the title “senator” or “congressman.”
The best thing you can do is be called “dad” or “mom,” “lover,” “neighbor,” “friend.”
Governor, senator, house member — it's a great way to serve, but it should be your 11th calling or maybe sixth, but never top.
3What the Senate actually should be doing
Sasse has called out the Senate numerous times for not doing the job it should be doing. So what is that job, Pelley asked?
For starters, there’s a desperate need for some serious cooperation and stability. Sasse said:
The Senate needs to be less like Instagram. The Senate needs to be more deliberative, and that means less “smack down” nonsense… We should make the Senate less of an institution that is built as a backdrop platform for people to get sound bites. That's not what the Senate is for. The Senate should be plodding and steady and boring and trustworthy.
On a bigger level, both parties need to address the issues concerning Americans—even when those issues are an “elephant in the room” that no one wants to hear. He said:
Neither of these parties really have very big or good ideas about 2030, or 2050. At a national security level, at a “future of work” level, at an institution-building level, the Congress is not wrestling with bigger, important questions right now.
We are living through a digital revolution, which is both glorious and horrific at the same time… We've never lived in a world where 22-year-olds couldn't assume that the work they did, they would be able to do until death or retirement. And we're never going to have that world again.
And Congress doesn't talk about any of those kind of most fundamental issues. The disruption of work, for good and for ill, should be front and center. Congress doesn't even know how to have that conversation.
