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This week saw the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy.  On Jan. 20, 1961, Kennedy stood on the steps of the Capitol in the winter chill and said: 

"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."


Those words are at the heart of what it means to be a public servant.


Kennedy's words resonated with an entire generation; even after his death, they continued inspiring Americans to do great things, like passing the Civil Right Act and Medicare and landing a man on the moon. 


But those words wouldn't have played well in the 2010 midterm election. A candidate who suggested that Americans make sacrifices to address the challenges facing our nation would certainly have attracted groups of Tea Party protesters and been in the fight of his or her life.


Recently I was speaking with a Minnesota legislator who had just won reelection. As we talked about what motivated him to seek another term, the words "public service" came up and he grew a bit nervous. "I believe in public service, I'm committed to it," he said. "But I can't use those words when I talk about it -- people just don't want to hear it." 


If you say the word "public servant" these days, a lot of people hear "corrupt politician" or "lazy bureaucrat."  


While it may make for lousy campaign rhetoric, the simple fact is that most people who either run for office or choose a career in government are good and hardworking, trying to do the best they can with the resources at their disposal. You see their work every day -- in the mail that gets delivered (see if FedEx will send a letter to Guam for 44 cents), the streets that get plowed, the Social Security checks that go out and the first responders who protect us.


Of course some politicians are corrupt and some government programs are wasteful.  President James Madison once said: 

"If men were angels there would be no need for government."

  Likewise, if men were angels there would be no need for government oversight. 


It will be interesting to see how the new Republican majority in Congress meets its obligation to serve. After fighting to kill President Bill Clinton's health care reform legislation in the mid '90s, the GOP majority spent the next 13 years avoiding the issue. Now a GOP majority in the House has voted to repeal the reform legislation that passed last April. Of course it lacks the majority in the Senate, and the president's veto pen will keep any repeal from taking effect. So it is difficult to see how this exercise in grandstanding and gridlock will actually serve the public.


The health care reform bill that passed last spring was far from perfect, but it was a start. The challenge now is to engage in the dense policy work that could refine the bill so it does the job the American people want it to do. But that's hard work. It's not easy to boil it down into pithy sound bites, and there are some really big special interests out there with lots of money who stand to lose a lot from health care reform.


JFK faced a similar dilemma when he committed to send a man to the moon.  But his words are just as relevant to health care or balancing the budget as they were to the space race:

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,

 because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."


John Schadl, a former broadcast journalist, began working as an aide to U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar in 1994 and served as his director of communications from 2007 to 2011.

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John Schadl

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The ideas of public service and shared sacrifice seem sadly out of step with the times.

How would 'Ask not' play in the politics of today?

Go Deeper.

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