Unity is not the default setting in a democracy and in particular one as diverse as America’s. Yet, most successful political leaders try to avoid long and intense periods of disunity. They know that government is composed of power centers and when those centers are animated by entirely different views, more than tactical victories are difficult.
And so it was during President Obama’s second term, as he resorted to Executive Orders with predictable challenges by the other two branches. Congress turned back his infrastructure initiative, and the Court reversed his Executive Order to protect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. After that reversal, he said, “I have pushed to the limits of my executive order ….. we now have to have Congress act.” He turned into a lame duck before his time.
President Trump appears to have disunity as a strategy. And it is working; he might be the first President to become a lame duck before his so-called honeymoon is over. It takes a special kind of ineptness to achieve such a result.
A friend of mine said the most encouraging thing about the Super Bowl was that Vice-President Mike Pence was sitting next to James Baker, who served both Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Working with President Reagan’s Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige, I got to know Jim Baker’s deft moves as we worked on new telecommunications policy. Domestic policy initiatives were vetted by the Economic Policy Council, which Baker chaired. He understood power and like a maestro knew how to blend disparate players.
The best presidents use persuasion skills, but also hire staff that is experienced and talented. When the two work seamlessly, presidents succeed and ultimately to the historian’s satisfaction.
Much is written about the President and his staff; unfortunately, the reviews are negative. Trump attempts to deflect this criticism by counter-attacking. This is not a successful long-term tactic; counter-attack can be used successfully only when deployed selectively.
America generally perseveres; it has survived assassinations, impeachments and attacks on the homeland. Yet, each intensely disruptive moment carries long-term implications and often perverse ones. September 11, 2001, brought America two wars and ubiquitous intrusions on privacy. And when Justice Harry Blackmun, writing for the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade, said that the constitution protected the right to abortion, he triggered severe disunity that is entering its third generation.
Now we have politics translated into war. We have negotiating stances stated as White House policy positions with attendant social media frenzy. Where does it end?
On the positive side, both political parties have received negative reviews. They both needed to be shaken, although it is unclear whether either can escape their hard-edged polemicists.
Hard edge can bring in money and create powerful street scenes, as leading provocateurs use social media. But, when America is at war internally its strength is sapped externally. And, by the way, internally there are some rather significant issues—spending, debt, health care, and economic insecurity highlight what I think of as a necessary renewal agenda. Those issues cannot be resolved with executive orders; disunity will exact a heavy toll.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al recently published Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
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