With the world in turmoil, it is clearer than ever that America can no longer afford the preening, puffing and partisan gotchas that masquerade as leadership in Washington today.
As our leaders bicker endlessly with one another, we are losing sight of our nation’s most critical goals, our domestic priorities, our place in the world, and our responsibilities around the globe.
John F. Kennedy defined leadership as “an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and comprised of no private obligation or aim, but one devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest.”
Such high-minded idealism at most seems quaint in our increasingly cynical nation’s capital, but that’s exactly what the current moment in U.S. history demands. As our nation looks wearily ahead to 2024, I hope people in Washington will embrace five pearls of wisdom that have historically helped guide America’s best leaders.
1. Your failure is not necessarily my success
Washington has lost sight of this idea in the last decade and the result has been almost disastrous.
The most consequential legislation in U.S. history has often been produced as a result of cooperation between Democrats and Republicans including The Social Security Act of 1935, The Medicare and Medicaid Act of 1965, and The Clean Air Act of 1970.
Then of course there was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Credit for that legislation is often, and rightly, given to Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights leaders who compelled Washington to act, and Lyndon Johnson, the Democratic president who shepherded the bills through Congress.
But the bill never would have passed if not for the Republican Senate leader Everett Dirksen. Imagine where we’d be if Senator Dirksen refused to support these bills because he didn’t want to give a “win” to a president from the other party.
It would have been tragic, short sighted and destructive – and yet that’s standard operating procedure to achieve “success” in our politics today.
We need to rediscover the virtues of the win-win deal – where each person at the negotiating table walks away with something to feel good about.
2. The perfect is the enemy of the good
In Washington, we often see members of Congress walk away from a deal because it doesn’t give them everything they want.
But in life, getting 100% of what you want isn’t on the menu – not in a marriage, a friendship, a business transaction and certainly not in any piece of legislation.
It’s important to have strong principles and to have bedrock beliefs you don’t compromise on. But let’s remember this country was founded on a grand compromise.
The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 almost fell apart because small and large states couldn’t agree on how to share power. The deadlock wasn’t broken until two delegates came up with the Connecticut Compromise, which created a House, with representation based on population and a Senate, which gave every state two senators.
It wasn’t perfect. But it was good, it was the right compromise to resolve the issue and it has been sustained for 250 years.
3. Act now or face dire consequences later
It is essential that we deal with issues when they present themselves and avoid kicking the can down the road.
Between America’s founding in the 1780’s and 2008, we accumulated $10 trillion in debt. In the 15 years since, we have accumulated another $24 trillion. This was all papered over by a decade of historically low interest rates. But now rates are rising, and the bill is coming due.
In 2020, the yield on a 10-year Treasury bond dipped well under one percent. Now, it’s approaching five percent, which means the government is paying much higher interest payments on the new money it borrows.
In fiscal year 2023, Washington spent $659 billion on debt interest payments alone. For perspective, that’s about 80 percent of what we spend on the entire defense department.
America’s debt as a share of GDP is now higher than any time since our government had to spend whatever it took to win World War II. The difference between then and now of course is that we knew World War II would eventually end, while our current debt explosion has no end in sight.
It’s a matter of when, not if, America will face a debt crisis if we continue down this path. I believe we still can, and must, summon the will to avoid one. But we can’t keep waiting.
It’s like a pilot flying toward a major thunderstorm 300 miles ahead. If they start slightly deviating from their course then, they avoid the storm. But if they wait until the plane is only 20 miles away, it will take some pretty skilled maneuvering to get through a lot of turbulence.
We know this budget storm is coming and we know avoiding it will require hard choices. But if we put off making the hard choices for too long, buckle up, because we will be facing a turbulent future. To quote Bette Davis, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.”
4. Sumpums Gotta Give
Herb Stein, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisors under President Nixon once insightfully said: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
The most unsustainable trend in our nation right now is how Americans treat one another. Politics has always been a rough and tumble game. But what’s happening now is different, and frightening.
A few years ago, political scientists asked both Democrats and Republicans a series of questions about how they viewed people in the other party. One of the questions was:
“Do you ever think: ‘we’d be better off as a country if large numbers of the opposing party just died’?” Almost one in five respondents said yes.
In response to another question, over 40 percent said they viewed the opposition as “downright evil.” This hostility is coloring Americans’ views of our entire democratic experiment.
Pew just did another study that found trust in government is at a 70-year low.
This can’t continue and it won’t. Throughout our history, America has had several moments where a broken old order was replaced by something new.
We’re approaching one of those moments again. I believe we’re on the cusp of a generational shift in our politics when new coalitions, alliances and leaders will emerge.
It will be up to these new leaders to decide whether an emerging order will be constructive or destructive.
5. We live in the greatest country in the history of the world
Our country today may seem like it is paralyzed by divisions, inequality, and anger. But it still has the resources, intelligence, funds, and know-how to create the greatest inventions and breakthroughs. We are still a destination for people from all over the world who are fleeing oppression or seeking opportunity.
In the early 1900s, my great grandfather had to leave Ukraine to escape the pogroms threatening him and his family. He didn’t know much about America but he knew it was a place founded on timeless values like freedom, liberty and equality. So, he came through Ellis Island in 1904 to become an American.
It’s one of the many reasons I will always be proud to be an American. If not for this country, I would never have had an opportunity to succeed or fail, or to realize my potential.
Of course, America hasn’t always lived up to these values, and it feels on so many days lately that we have lost our way.
Recently, I went to a Bob Dylan concert in New York and I was reminded of a different time 60 years ago when the way forward was also troubling and unclear and a young Dylan sang:
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’
We have lost our way before and always found our way forward thanks to dedicated, talented and patriotic leaders who renewed America’s promise. I firmly believe we will do so again.
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