Leadership
Quote of the day, courtesy of Winston Churchill: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
Last week, I wrote from post-Hitler Berlin. This week, from bubbling London, where tributes abound to the man who gave the free world its spine. Winston Churchill.
From 1929 to 1939, Churchill was exiled from government. His “Wilderness Years.” Why? He was viewed as an alarmist warmonger. 1932: “Germany is arming fast, and no one is going to stop her.” 1934: “We shall be forced into war… because we have not done our duty in time.” 1936: “Do not be deceived by peace pacts.” 1938 to Neville Chamberlain: “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.” 1939: “Hitler’s dictatorship [is] a monstrous tyranny.”
Clear, powerful language. Prescient. Ignored. Britain turned to Churchill only after Hitler invaded Poland. America joined only after Pearl Harbor. Early action would have spared many of the 85 million who died in World War II. The carnage when an evil leader runs rampant through the leaderless.
Which brings us to today, when our democracy faces its biggest threat since World War II. An attack led by a ruthless power-wielding leader, opposed by an ineffectual Democratic Party. Last week, President Barack Obama weighed in from Philadelphia. Seemingly out of the loop on what’s going on today, Obama offered that we are “drifting into something that is not consistent with American democracy.” Drifting???
In the Philly conversation, Obama observed that America is “a story about people who aren’t pretentious and don’t believe that anybody is worse than them or better than them.” Yet my travels across America on the topic of school, I’ve met so many adults, especially the 62% of non-college-degreed Americans, who believe that Democrats view them as second-class citizens. With ample evidence from Democratic Party policies, statements, and actions. Common Core. College Signing Day. Reach Higher. Better Make Room. Student Loan Forgiveness. Even our language is geared to Ivory Tower halls – authoritarian, misogyny, xenophobia, people of color, gender nonconforming. An America with “people who aren’t pretentious”?
I have enormous respect for Barack and Michelle Obama, and worked hard as part of his National Finance Committee. But in the demise of America’s democracy, two years stand out. In 2008, Obama won in a true ‘landslide,’ with a 192 electoral vote margin, control of 60 Senate seats, and a whopping 79-seat U.S. House majority. Imagine an LBJ using this power in 2009 and 2010. Codify Roe v. Wade. Fortify The Voting Rights Act. Curb gerrymandering. Reform immigration with paths to citizenship. Strengthen labor rights. Adopt sensible gun laws and a carbon tax. Push out RBG. Instead, “no red states or blue states” Obama was rolled by “our highest priority is ensuring Obama is a one-term president” McConnell. By 2010, ‘hope and change’ was gone, as Republicans gained seven U.S. Senate seats, 63 House seats, six gubernatorial seats, and control of an additional 20 state legislative chambers. The window for Democratic power closed, unlikely to open again in our lifetimes. Particularly . . .
In our time of greatest need, the DNC is roiled by dysfunction. As tanks roll through our nation’s Capitol, the DNC draws America’s attention to ‘gender-diversity rules’ as it ousts rogue Vice-Chairs. The newly-elected chair shares that any chance to display leadership has been “destroyed.” Hardly our finest hour. A friend asked recently, “Should I give to the DNC?” Only if you have money to waste.
One thing is clear. The current administration isn’t “drifting” – it has power and is using it, and then some. Makes LBJ look like a slowpoke. But the Democratic Party is adrift. Which leads to democracy-defining questions:
Will someone emerge as America’s Winston Churchill?
Can we afford to wait until August 2028?
What can we do to identify and support the right Churchillian leader, soon?
For now, this four-hundred-year-old Rembrandt painting in London’s National Gallery captures how many of us feel about America today.
Nervously,
Ted