I miss the old days in politics when I could actually be friends with political enemies. In days gone by, I could disagree most of the time with Republicans, yet catch of glimpse of their sense of decency and occasionally work together for causes we both believed in.
There was a time almost 40 years ago when I could chat amicably with State Rep. Paul Hillegonds of the 88th District, Allegan County. There was a time when former President Gerald Ford called former President Jimmy Carter, “a decent honorable man.” There was a time when the late Republican Congressman Paul Henry told a GOP dinner crowd that he disagreed often with Howard Wolpe, but would never question his integrity.
I know these days such political figures would be called “RINOs” (Republicans in Name Only) by Ranger Rick and his ilk. And they would be derided by quoting Leo Durocher’s infamous “Nice guys finish last.”
This illuminates the sorry deterioration of our two-party political system into a “win at all costs” mode in which fairness, ethics and morality are pushed aside, sacrificed at the altar of winning.
Perhaps the best and most recent example was former State Rep. and Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, who paid a hefty political price for standing up for his moral and religious beliefs in 2016 by withdrawing his support for former President Donald Trump after his raunchy remarks about women was made public with the Access Hollywood tape in October 2016.
Calley was indeed a religious man, whom I took to task personally after he put together a one-man show at the Nashville Baptist Church for a captive membership of hundreds of voting age people. Calley told me he didn’t see anything wrong in sharing his faith in remarks and songs.
There were other times we locked horns, notably at public forums when he first ran for a state legislator’s seat in Lansing. Calley was pro-life, religious and unabashedly pro-business.
Yet I discovered he also was a huge fan of the Beatles, and we could use that as common ground because of my admiration of the group and love of 1960s and 1970s oldies.
We even forged alliances occasionally on quality local government practices and he agreed to make guest appearances to help raise money for the Barry County Animal Shelter.
But standing up for his moral principles essentially ended his once promising political career. He refused to endorse Trump after the Access Hollywood revelations and in 2018 he was trounced by then-Attorney General Bill Schuette, who was an unabashed supporter of Trump, in the GOP primary election for governor.
To be sure, Calley landed on his feet, like so many former politicos, afterward by being named director of the Small Business Administration lobby in Lansing, where he continues to work to this day. Furthermore, his wife, Julie, was elected state representative from his district, which mostly included Barry County.
To this day, I find Mr. Calley to be a flawed individual with some ethical challenges, but I miss him and his kind in our State Legislature because he wasn’t “my way or the highway” or a true believer in the notion that the other side was doing the bidding of Satan.
I voted in the GOP primary in 2018 in order to support Calley and for a candidate who today is Wayland’s mayor, Jennifer Antel, whom I also believe harbors the same kind of bipartisan spirit her party sorely lacks.
“Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end.” — Mary Hopkin, 1968.
