Humility: Lessons from McGovern and Dole

A story of humility, honor, and respect from two politicians.

I begin with a personal reflection.

One is how time flies. In talking with a twenty-something, she had a vague idea of who Bob Dole and had never heard of George McGovern.

Two is how the political commitments in our lives can change. George McGovern was my first vote for President of the United States. I was attending Miltonvale Wesleyan College in Kansas at the time. I had a large picture of McGovern in my room. I liked his stance on the war. I liked his proposal to reform welfare. I was with him all the way, even when I knew that he would lose in a big way. Later, Bob Dole simply struck me as a decent man. Given some of the issues that Bill Clinton was having at the time, I thought Dole would be an upgrade from what we had. Frankly, I still do think that way. Of course, it was not to be.

In both cases, I backed the loser in the presidential election. Yet, I pause for a moment to reflect on these two men.

Luke 14:7-11 warns us of grabbing honor and respect for ourselves. Jesus warns us that the way things work in the world, we will find it better to approach it with humility.  "All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (Luke 14:11). Humility is an elusive virtue; one cannot manufacture it. If we become conscious of our humility, we are likely no longer humble. Yet, in 14:12-14, Jesus tells us to give honor and respect to all, and not just family and friends. If disciples of Jesus host a banquet, “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.”

Let us return to the story of two defeated presidential candidates.

George McGovern died in 2012. He was a United States Senator whom many people will remember, if at all, as the Democrat who lost to Republican Richard Nixon in one of the most lopsided defeats in presidential history.

McGovern was no coward. In truth, he was a decorated bomber pilot in World War II, a man who served his country bravely and well. His staff urged him to talk more about his war experience, but like so many veterans, he was reluctant to do so. He described himself as the son of a Methodist minister. He was a "good old South Dakota boy" who went off to war. He was a man who had been "married to the same woman forever."

In short, he was humble.

Maybe that humility served him well, because at the end of his life he received the World Food Prize award along with Republican Senator Bob Dole. Writing in The Washington Post, Dole said,

"Our most important commonality -- the one that would unite us during and after our service on Capitol Hill -- was our shared desire to eliminate hunger in this country and around the world. As colleagues in the 1970s on the Senate Hunger and Human Needs Committee, we worked together to reform the Food Stamp Program, expand the domestic school lunch program and establish the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children."

Later, they worked together to strengthen global school feeding, nutrition and education programs. They jointly proposed a program to provide poor children with meals at schools in countries throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, one that both Presidents Clinton and Bush supported. That program has now succeeded in providing meals to 22 million children in 41 different countries.

George McGovern and Bob Dole. Democrat and Republican. Both fought in World War II. Both ran for president and lost. Nevertheless, they are not, in any sense, losers. Losers do not work together, quietly and effectively, to provide meals to 22 million hungry children.

We live in a partisan political climate. Even if these two men are politicians, their lives show the kind of humility that would put them in the Humility Hall of Fame. They also demonstrate the importance of extending to all persons the honor and respect they deserve as those made in the image of God.