Elected Officials and the Common Good

Elected officials should consider themselves public servants. They should be sincerely devoted to the “common good”, in the purest sense of that term; and that devotion should be evident in both the covert and overt means by which the official/servant exercises the power that people have vested in him/her. A public servant should be willing to sacrifice a larger portion of her/his private life than an average citizen in order to demonstrate his/her devotion to the common good. Elected officials must live above the level of offering power for sale; that is, they must use power for the common good no matter how or by whom their campaign is funded. Public servants should maintain an acute awareness of the perennial temptation of corruption that accompanies the investiture and use of power, and should practice stringent self-examination and accountability to trusted, mature others to avoid such corruption. Public servants should maintain the humility that accrues to an awareness of his/her fallibility. No human has the final, immutable word of truth. There is almost always truth on both sides of issues; and public servants must not allow the pursuit of election or popularity to preempt his/her willingness to see the truth on the other side. Public servants must not demonize their opponents in order to gain or maintain power, but they must always be given license to speak the truth regarding what they believe to be the best direction for the common good; and to expose dereliction in any realm.

Elected officials should sincerely pray for/seek wisdom, and exercise compassion for all humans, even their political opponents. We war against wrong ideas, not the humans who espouse those ideas.

In a Democracy, the general population always has a greater responsibility than the elected officials. A Democracy only works in a culture of mature and compassionate populace. It is impossible to properly serve a selfish, entitled, irresponsible population. Their demands will always exceed what is provided, and they will always feel deprived and mistreated. The government is neither the primary solution nor the primary cause of our problems. Our own individual and collective level of psycho-spiritual maturity will always be the primary determinant of our experience of peace and prosperity.

May God bless us in this regard.

Mark Graham


In government, compromise is a factor. There can be too little or too much of it. Too little compromise tilts the scales toward tyranny; and too much is betrayal of fundamental principle. Compromise must never be bought or sold, but rather always used to leverage for the greater common good.