An Introduction to Politics for Good People

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On January 20, the federal government will be taken over by bad people.

We don't typically talking in those terms, instead referring to policy differences or diverse governing philosophies. But Donald Trump, J. D. Vance, Stephen Miller, Elon Musk, and others about to step into important government roles are morally unworthy and often morally monstrous.

In the coming months and years, many people will write many critiques of them and their aims. I'll write many myself. But right now, I want to instead map out the alternative. If they represent politics for bad people, then over a series of posts, I'll explore what it looks like to instead have a politics for good people.

By this I don’t mean (just) “people who are good at politics.” Rather, I mean that if we begin with what it takes to be a good person instead of a bad one, we can then ask, “Why kind of politics would that good person have?” This isn’t going to get us to all the details, of course. Policy is complicated and complex. But it should get us a good way towards decency in politics, and a general picture that will make the likelihood of arriving at correct (helpful, moral, praiseworthy) political decisions much higher.

My goal is twofold. First, by mapping out a “politics for good people,” those of us who care about politics, and want to use it as a means to make the world better, will have something both to aim at and to judge ourselves against. We’ll have a clearer sense of what it takes to be good, how to achieve that, and what kind of political positions are compatible with it.

Second, by having that clear picture of “politics for good people,” we can better recognize its opposite. And not just recognize, but also diagnose. We can see how the state of bad personhood leads to bad politics, and trace particular sorts of bad politics back to bad personhood.

That’s the project, and it’s one I hope you’ll join me on here.

But before I finish this introduction to “Politics for Good People,” I want to set down to markers. Let’s start with roughly what it means to be a good person. I’ll explore this in a lot more depth over coming posts, of course, but very roughly speaking, a good person will be virtuous, wise, and mindful, and embody the character traits of benevolence, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity.

Finally, a preview of what politics of this sort looks like in practice. Politics for good people will be a liberal politics. “Liberal” is, of course, a big topic, and a definitionally challenging one. But liberalism as I’ll use it looks like (1) a recognition of the high value of individual liberty that is (2) grounded in an appreciation of the equal moral worth and right to self-authorship of all, and (3) sees value in the social diversity and dynamism that (1) and (2) inevitably unleash and encourage.

We’ll tease all of that out in future posts in this series. I’m excited to get started.