EDITOR’S NOTE: Marc C. Johnson is a local author by way of Idaho and Nebraska. Marc serves as the president of the Nehalem Bay Health District and has been instrumental in shepherding the district’s recent expansions and completion of the new Nehalem Bay Health Center. Marc has published several books and as he notes below, writes this great Substack blog to make sense of the world we live in. If you are interested, follow him on Substack – link below.
Go to a city council meeting, support a local state legislator’s campaign, share good information that is local and important – be a citizen
By Marc C. Johnson
I’m grateful to my friend Ray Boomhower, senior editor at the Indiana Historical Society Press and author of many fine books, for this great quote:
The galleries are full of critics. They play no ball, they fight no fights. They make no mistakes because they attempt nothing. Down in the arena are the doers. They make mistakes because they try many things. The man who makes no mistakes lacks boldness and the spirit of adventure. He is the one who never tries anything. His is the brake on the wheel of progress. And yet it cannot be truly said he makes no mistakes, because his biggest mistake is the very fact that he tries nothing, does nothing, except criticize those who do things.
The quote is from General David M. Shoup who won the Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his own life” during the bloody battle for Tarawa during World War II.
Shoup later served as Commandant of the Marine Corps where he had the guts to tell John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson that they shouldn’t intervene militarily in Cuba and Vietnam.
To say that Shoup was outspoken would be a bit of an understatement. He was the definition of a citizen/soldier.
After his retirement Shoup remained a candid, forceful critic of American foreign policy, calling President Lyndon Johnson’s contention that the Vietnam War was vital to United States interests “pure, unadulterated poppycock.”
A great American life.
And the general’s quote got me thinking about things closer to home.
Folks regularly ask me what is to be done to address the toxic, tribal politics that have infected the United States?
I usually start by saying there are no quick fixes.
We didn’t get in this mess overnight and if we get out of it with anything like a functioning democracy it will be a long, long slog. I won’t live long enough, I suspect, to see the end of this mess.
For sure we need to get personally engaged in the mid-term election next November. We need to regularly reach out to our own circle of influence – family, friends and neighbors. We need to support good candidates financially and with time and energy. We need to take to the streets.
We need to have the courage to speak out in every way possible against meanness, stupidity and mendacity. The community level pushback against masked ICE agents is encouraging.
All of that is vitally important, but still not nearly enough.
So to suggest some New Year’s Resolutions for 2026, I would humbly offer something like this:
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Take a lot more interest in very close to home local politics. Take the time to know local elected officials. Go to city council and school board meetings. It will be pretty obvious pretty quickly who is doing the hard work of trying to make things work better in your community. Make sure you know who these people are and then support them every way you can.
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Ignore the shrill critics on Facebook who pop off at a moments notice on anything and everything they consider outrageous or offensive to their world view. Typically they don’t know what they are talking about and often they don’t actually participate in any meaningful way in even the politics of where they live. They are the brakes on the wheels of progress.
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Condemn those who threaten and harass local and state officials, but condemn with reason and decency. Strive not to accelerate the nonsense, but calm it down.
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Communicate with your local officials, especially if you have something good to say. They hear all the time from the naysayers and those who criticize but do nothing. They need to hear from you. These folks are almost always volunteers. Most don’t get paid. They do the quiet and vital work of making the water systems work, the fire departments function, they keep the library a safe place.
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Get more involved in the place you live. The price of admission to most non-profit organizations and many governmental boards and commissions is to simply show up and be interested. So, pick your spot and show up and be interested.
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Share good information with your friends and family. There is an avalanche of slop out there – AI is making it much worse – unreliable, stupid, damaging garbage. There are also quality sites where good, solidly reported information is readily available. When you see something important share it.
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Support good, responsible journalism where it still exists. I strongly support the work of States Newsroom, a non-profit site that now has an outpost or affiliate in every state. They do great work covering state legislatures and much national news. I know some of these journalists. They are the real deal. Their work is also free (although they would appreciate your donation).
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Find a local news outlet and support it. They are still out there, but many struggle. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.
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Support The Guardian, The Bulwark, The Atlantic and sites like InvestigateWest. They are doing stellar work with longer form investigative journalism. There are many good, highly credible news and opinion sites. Even when the New York Times or Washington Post frustrates me I know that the vast majority of the journalism they produce is of the highest quality. And it’s a good idea to check in with some places that don’t always validate your priors. My alternative reality is the National Review, Bill Buckley’s old magazine. They often piss me off, but I often learn something, as well.
Above all don’t sit in the gallery with the critics.
As General Shoup said the biggest mistake is the very fact that you try nothing, do nothing, except criticize those who do things.
Don’t be that person.
Happy New Year.
Thanks for coming along here.
About Marc C. Johnson:
I am a Nebraska native, grew up in South Dakota and migrated in Idaho after college to work in broadcast journalism. In 1986, I joined the “comeback” campaign of a legendary Idaho political figure – Cecil D. Andrus – who eventually served four terms as governor and four years as Secretary of the Interior, not bad for a Democrat in a very conservative state. I had a small role in helping Cece Andrus win his last two gubernatorial terms. I did communication and crisis consulting work, and since “retiring” have written three books on U.S. Senate history. I’m working on a new book on another legend – this one a legend in journalism.
I write this Substack to scratch my itch to connect history with current politics. I hope, in some small way, to contribute to understanding of this perilous moment for our democracy, for free speech and facts.