Batt Offers a Role Model for What Politics Can Be

 Batt offers a role model for what politics can be. Many of us complain a lot about the many who populate American politics, but in doing so we often miss half of the equation. You know what you don't like, but you don't stop to think about what qualities you should pursue.

Here are some people who will find many of these positive qualities

Phil Batt, a former governor and congressman from Idaho who is still concerned about the situation. When I first met him in a phone interview long ago as a college newspaper reporter, Batt had already been involved in state politics for 10 years and was then the leader of the state Senate majority. He's also already built a reputation as a smart, trustworthy, hardworking, hard-working natural leader in that circle, and despite all that, he wasn't too full of himself. He showed confidence without losing his arrogance. And he can be fun to talk to. (Sometimes when he sent me a short handwritten note, he always signed it with a scribbled drawing of a bat.)

You can meet Batt in a new book called “Lucky: The Wisdom and Wisdom of Governor Phil Batt” just published by Caxton Books. It is based on a series of interviews with Rod Gramer, who has worked as a journalist in Idaho for many years and includes essays from about six people who got to know Batt. (Disclaimer: I was one of them.)

A few years before that I mentioned Batt became Lieutenant Governor and 12 years later Idaho Governor. He served one term in each position, typically serving in the legislature for a period of only six years or so. Serving people is not about himself, he reasoned. It has more to do with staying close to those people and not losing their perspective.

He has something to say about his tenure as well, and I think he missed out on the state because he didn't get a second bat term. He was hitting his full stride when his first was over. In a recent University of Idaho panel on this book, I pointed it out and came second to anyone who should have the opposite incentive. easily win) as governor instead. He recalled trying to tell Batt to run again at the time.

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Batt remains a solid Republican. The former Idaho Republican chairman (which he rebuilt during grim times for the organization) couldn't do it otherwise. But how many Republican leaders today would say, as Batt put it in a newspaper column from 1975: “Of all humanity's basic behaviors, I think racism is the worst. It is the main cause of most wars. It causes fistfights, murder, and fear. To make matters worse, millions of people live in depravity and despair.” It's not an aberration either. Human rights have been a driving force throughout his public life.

What does Batt think of the current political situation? Here he was a little warier of his remarks. At one point, when asked about former President Donald Trump, he replied, uncommonly, "You have to be careful with what I say," and he walked the topic somewhat. He was blunter about the anger and anguish of politics these days. "The current political climate is shameful," he said in an interview for the book. “There is no answer, but it has damaged our country globally and could be much worse.”

His plain political optimism seems a bit quieter here. But I have an answer for that. We can elect those who approach public responsibility in the different ways that Batt has, and we can act as responsible citizens. It is definitely an improvement over many of the ones we currently have.