What national goals should be converted to mandates and pursued relentlessly through Executive Branch executive orders and its regulatory agency rules? In other words, which goals should bypass Congressional scrutiny and therefore representative democracy?

Relatedly, are there subjects that should be given oxygen and ultimately better understanding through Congressional hearings? Which is to say hearings aimed more at findings than advocacy.

Much of today’s political activity recalls several of our dogs in day’s past falling into the water and frantically swimming, almost catapulting themselves to get back on terra firma. While our labradors enjoyed water under foot, others didn’t. Too many politicians can only maintain their footing on their dogma.

I recently watched the Netflix movie, Don’t Look Up. The movie is dark satire about the impending implosion of the earth due to climate change. The storyline is that a Michigan State scientist and his doctoral candidate have calculated that a quite large comet will strike the earth in six months and cause earth-ending destruction.

The pair travel to Washington to convince the President, a witless female played by Meryl Streep, that she must take immediate action to divert the comet. Among other, often hilarious insults, the Michigan State pair was dismissed because they weren’t from an Ivy League school.

The movies’ narrative assumption was that the populous was not prepared to believe unassailable evidence—they were wallowing in pleasure and the thoughtless twitch culture. Long term, for them, is a three minute Tik Tok production.

So let me reflect on the filmmakers concern, climate change. Today there are two centers of gravity on climate change. First there are those who are certain the earth (we) are on the road to destruction. The second either doesn’t believe or doesn’t know what to believe about the road we are on.

This binary thinking is dangerous because it leads to abrupt dismissal of each other’s opinions—on an existential issue. Where does a democracy go when one school of thought wants to end the use of fossil fuels and the other school wants gas freely available for a price that doesn’t exceed expectations? President Biden, who is generally believed to embrace the first school of thought, recently raided the oil reserve to expand supply and lower prices. The reality of today’s politics swells with hypocrisy; a hot-house gas that breeds cynicism.

In a democracy, people need to be informed about urgent and far-reaching goals. But when it comes to climate change and the trillions of dollars necessary to make a real difference in greenhouse gases, big moves are hidden in enormous omnibus bills or agency regulations ordered up by the White House.

So, what if Congress stripped climate related legislation out of the massive Build Back Better legislative package and spotlighted climate legislation in regional and national hearings? Would this be constructive?

I’m hesitant to forecast how many more people would be better informed. But, it is my guess that when 2022 fades into 2023 such a move could be on the list of best Congressional actions of the previous year. And, the mid-term electorate might just be better informed.

Given Congresses standing today, those who seek office to be a Member of America’s most important institution should demand the return of the necessary practices of representative government. Likewise voters should put the health of the Congress at the top of their list of national objectives.

Relatedly, when it comes to White House edicts, they set up inevitable court actions claiming the order should be reversed. These clashes, with inevitable winner and loser narratives, portray the Supreme Court as a political combatant rather than a constitutional arbiter. Not a good place for the Supreme Court to be.

Both political parties contend endlessly on how this or that policy change or appropriation will lead to nirvana. Leaders, and especially Congressional ones, should concentrate on reforming Congress and facilitating representative government. At this point there are only two co-equal branches of government.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Politics is similar to a market. A given political figure’s value (strength) is priced in frequent polls that measure his popularity. Political commentators talk about a president’s “political capital”.

In the 1990s, the Democratic political adviser James Carville said: “I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”

In the case of President Biden, it is almost as if his staff has a short position in his value. With apologies to those who have never shorted a stock or bond, it is not a market move that anticipates the stock or bond will do well. Indeed, if it does well, you lose money.

In politics, losing can be circumstantial and self-inflicted. Former President Trump lost to Covid, a circumstance, but then acted as if he knew what to do, self-inflicted. President Biden, as a candidate, knew he couldn’t keep up with Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren on the Left of his Party so he campaigned from his Party’s Center. He became President and abandoned the Center for the Left notwithstanding paper-thin margins in the Congress. Along with the mishandling of the departure from Afghanistan his beginning pointed to his future.

Now he is blaming his inability to get things done on two moderate Democrat Senators in his Party. He has chosen to lead like the President of an advocacy organization who can raise money using the currency of passion.

In recent weeks he lost the necessary Congressional support on his Build Back Better legislative package and his attempt to federalize voting rules. Plus on Wednesday was told by a majority of the Supreme Court that a universal mandate on employee vaccinations was unconstitutional. And, all the while, poll after poll has measured shrinking popularity.

Starkly, one year into his presidency he already seems a lame duck. And this is at a moment when negotiations with Russia and relatedly the European Union might well turn on the President’s perceived strength. If I was advising the President, I would outline a doable path back to the Center.

Sit down with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senators Manchin and Sinema and reach compromises that will attract Republican Senators from the group that supported the infrastructure bill that was truly bipartisan. But first bring on staff Democrats who know how to work the halls of Congress with its fractious politics. If the President is overruling those kind of staffers among his current advisors, the Nation is in real trouble.

I did not vote for either Presidents Trump or Biden. But all of us by fact of our citizenship are signed up for democracy. Biden won and will continue to be our President for the next three years. His beginning has been unfortunate; I hope he will find his footing. But at present, with the midterm elections looming, one of his new counselors should be James Carville; he knows how political markets work.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Hometown is a personal word; behind it is history and emotion. It is a place, a location, a municipal entity, an emotional attachment and more. But in our lives it is where we (and I suspect most of our friends) live.

Small towns are familiar to me. I grew up in one and have spent a large part of my time during the last 33 years just miles outside of Cambridge and for the last 13 years, Easton. My wife and I were drawn to Easton by an attractive combination of community assets.

Before we moved to Easton we had enjoyed concerts at The Avalon, brunches at The Tidewater, retail shops, and of course, the Bay and its tributaries. Since moving to Easton in 2008 we have watched the renewal of The Tidewater under the excellent leadership of John H. Wilson, Jr. As well, the restoration and then expansion of The Avalon and the farsighted conversion of the abandoned McCord laundry into a Conservation Center by the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy.

On a more personal level I enjoyed working with Robbie Gill, Derek White and Tom Hill on, with a slight bias, what I believe to be the best YMCA in America.

I am fortunate to live where I do and my good fortune is shared. I have told many people over a number of years that I live in Easton. Typical response: “you are lucky.” But, let me pause because I could go on and on about the number of organizations that have stepped up to help people who face challenging circumstances.

I suspect all of the above and much more led Paul Prager to invest in Easton. And his investments following the Great Recession of 2008-9 and, more recently, the pandemic, have been hugely helpful. So why do I write about those insightful investments?

Several weeks ago, prompted by a Bluepoint Hospitality (owned by Mr. Prager) promotion on social media I read a Boston Globe article about my hometown.

The article’s initial paragraphs noted that Easton had once been “a hot spot for the Underground Railroad” and referenced its close connections to Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas. The writers than bridged the past with today.

They wrote: “This leafy, often overlooked community………….is undergoing a massive renaissance, largely at the hands of one man. Paul Prager, principal of Bluepoint Hospitality, who attended the nearby Naval Academy and has a summer home and farm in the area, has been buying historic buildings in town and opening a slew of new, upscale businesses. Through his passion for the area (and deep pockets) Prager is completely revitalizing and restoring the once down-and-out, distressed city into a cultural and culinary hub, bringing in top architects, designers, chefs and sommeliers.” Prager noted in an interview with the writers, “I wanted some of the things I enjoy in New York City.”

I too have lived in NYC so when Piazza opened and then expanded I couldn’t think of any place in NYC that was its equal. And when I took a friend to Out of the Fire they were not only infatuated with the food, but amazed that it was celebrating its 20th year under Amy Haines. And learning about Ruby’s Cakes my wife and I became customers—no, enthusiastic customers. We also enjoyed a bit of NYC (before Starbucks crowded into every several block area); RiseUp coffee recalled the locally owned coffee shops in the early 1990s.

So yes Easton is indeed fortunate that Mr. Prager has become a major investor in it’s downtown and is supporting many of its worthy organizations. Let me repeat, Easton is indeed fortunate.

Mr. Prager is also fortunate; Easton is and has been an excellent place to invest. And especially to live. My disappointment is that the Boston Globe writers failed to tell the entire story.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Disturbing is maybe an understatement. The incentives are all wrong. When the incentives become perverse, bad things happen.

Nursing used to be about helping people recover. And then Covid canceled large swaths of recoverable hospitalizations and nurses watched as earlier Covid hospitalizations and deaths crowded their day—non-stop ventilation and/or death. 

Remember the medical dramas on TV or maybe your own drama? Nurses, both female and male wore uniforms that were both attractive and reassuring. Now they often are garbed in hazmat gear. Nurses are eager to help, not assist in undertaking. Many, it is reported, have chosen to leave the profession. While not a forecaster, it seems to me this portends a generational move that will leave health care the poorer. 

Similarity the incentives in politics or what is actually public affairs have also changed and certainly for the worse. There was a time some decades ago that I considered running for Congress. Today I wouldn’t accept an appointment to serve. 

Public-minded people are needed. Too often what we get today are people who want to serve dogmatism or a cult figure, not the public. Progressives have their Squad; Republicans have their own version of cancel culture. The latter scream that academics cancel conservative views (and often they are right); on the other hand, the former President cancels with the acronym RINO (Republicans in Name Only). What he means is to be a Republican you have to support me.

This cancellation recalls President Biden asserting that “if you are Black you can’t be a Republican.” What both Parties nominal leaders want to cancel is common sense. 

Business in America is always searching for the new thing. It might be an invention. Or carving out a new product or service segment. Or significant changes in customer service. The one thing the customer can depend on is some level of change, until. Until a segment of service becomes monopolized. 

Health care, the dominant political parties and government are to a large degree monopolized. And too often the patient or the taxpayer is left frustrated. Frustrated by stupidity, inefficiencies and poor service.

We are told that future pandemics should be expected. Health care leaders need to examine the evidence, and if it is convincing, invest in scalable infectious disease centers that can deal with lethal infections without closing down care for cancer or cardiac or other needs that are crucial to well-being. Covid 19 has served up lessons; we should now use time to advantage .

When it comes to public affairs, the largest plurality now register as Independent. Recognizing this shift, several forward-looking States have recently enacted rank choice voting or open primary laws. Both selection methods tend to defang the rabid. Rank choice voting, for example, incentivizes more expansive outreach by candidates as second place selections, when no candidate gains a majority, are crucial. Open primaries allow voters to cross Party lines.

Incentives matter. Public affair leaders should be constantly revisiting incentives. If health care disincentivizes nursing, change it. If political cancel culture discourages public spiritedness, change it. And beware of private and public monopolies; if there is only one source for service it is likely to be bad. 

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

 

Friends and Family

Many of us have seen friendships and even family relations fracture due to political differences. As David French pointed out in a recent commentary, we have very little influence on what happens in national politics. Our one vote or even active outreach for one side or the other rarely makes a difference. On the other hand, we can make a huge and positive difference in our families and circles of friends.

Sure, I write from time to time about politics and consider public affairs in a democracy important, but from decades of experience I am convinced we should value relationships much more than debating points.

Contrarians of the Year

My nature is to ask why so many are moving in the same direction. Is it truth or credulity that is the propellant? Characteristic then are my year end salutes.

On the Republican side are Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. Both turned away from tribal insistence and former President Trump’s persistent disparagement and are probing for truth in the investigation of the January 6th assault on the Capitol.

On the Democrat side are Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema. Both turned away from costly entitlements buried in omnibus legislation. Withstanding immense pressure, they saved the nation trillions of dollars of new entitlements fiscally sold as time-limited expenditures. Would that President Biden would have shared their insight.

Questions for 2022

I have been and remain dubious about Donald Trump winning his Party’s 2024 nomination. Perhaps it is my contrarian nature serving up a false premise. But I persist. 2022 will not be a good year for the former President. The big reveal will persist with decline in those who would be willing to vote for him to again occupy the Oval Office. It is possible that Republicans will renominate somebody who cannot win, but I doubt it.

And, to that same point, Democrats will begin to look beyond President Biden and Vice-President Harris to find its nominee. Neither, for different reasons, will have the necessary pulling power projected to November of 2024.

The importance of 2022 is that the midterms offer up a fresh lens and often spotlight the persuasive power of emerging political leaders.

Best bet, however: being a hotelier in Iowa or New Hampshire where the presidential nominating process will begin.

2022 will not be framed by Covid but by Hybrid. We will learn to live with whatever mutation. Covid has had an enormous influence over how we live and some level of angst will persist. Or let me put it another way. Stung by Covid and now inflation, efficiency in how we live will enjoy a star turn.

I also believe step-back analyses of the nation’s response to Covid will show that we burdened too many and failed to target effectively those who were especially vulnerable. And I hope that the spotlight on public health and its leadership will attract a new and improved generation of public health leadership.

2022 will feature another public health spotlight. We will increasingly learn about our role in the new media business model—the near complete loss of our privacy. Increasingly stories are focusing on not just the loss of privacy, but how our individual profiles are being exploited.

Humanity has weak spots. We are all vulnerable to spending or borrowing too much and the business model at its foundation is aimed at just that. Temptation has always been an important element in advertising. Every sense from smell to taste to hormonal urges and much more are the stimulants. But the advertising in the past has been aimed at demographics, not persons. Now we and often our weaknesses are the target! We will push back more aggressively in 2022.

Pursued at 74

Chris Wallace just signed what I suspect is a lucrative contract with CNN at age 74. So, what is it about Wallace?

I would suggest the offer was for sustained integrity. Integrity that demanded hard to answer questions. Questions that often-revealed deception and/or hypocrisy.

Chris Wallace occupied an office at one of the biased cable networks (Fox in his case) without harming his reputation. Both Biden and Trump accepted him as the moderator of one of the presidential debates. Wallace took on viewpoint journalism and won.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

We have much to learn or at least remind ourselves—we should not anesthetize revealing moments. So let me begin my annual year-end column by wishing you a Merry Christmas. But, let me add that as other important moments of religious observance occur, we should pause and reflect on the events and messages as well.

Or to put it another way, the noise of the world is always with us. We are continually told what to believe, promote, buy and borrow. We shouldn’t be surprised then when an important moment of reflection is turned into a commercial affair. 

There are eleven federal holidays. A few celebrate a turning of the calendar, some are paired with events and almost all are underscored with commercialism. Three are more personal as we celebrate George Washington, Martin Luther King and Christopher Columbus—each giant figures in our history, but also quite human in their ambitions and patterns of living. 

President Washington, following his election as our first President, began a tour that concluded with his inaugural in New York. He visited the Mid-Atlantic and New England states—states of the new union.

Washington’s fame bordered on the mythic. He led the Continental army which defeated the British. And then was elected the United States first head of State. At several of his stops young boys were heard to exclaim, with surprise, “He is just a man.” 

Historians continue to dig and each new narrative angle generally contains information revealing the leaders humanness. Perfection is not only elusive, it is out-of-reach. Before long we are left asking whether glorifying a person is a sensible thing to do.

Ironically there are “culture influencers” who attempt to erase Jesus Christ from Christmas. Their preferred greeting is “Happy Holidays”. Yet, across virtually the entire spectrum of the faith community Jesus is revered. His teachings are inspirational and aspirational. The world, our world, is often dark; we should welcome the light each December. 

Miroslav Volf, Founding Director, Yale Center for Faith & Culture, extends 1 John 4:20 in a telling expression: “Since God is invisible, love for God is invisible as well; unlike God, though, the neighbor is visible, and love for neighbor is visible as well. Since the love for neighbor and for God is one, “those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen”.

While all of us can agree that too often religion is used to elevate humans and their ambitions, we should look beyond the noise. We should encourage the visible affirmations of faith. 

Charles Dickens revisited the seasons light in The Christmas Carol. As Scrooge re-visited Christmas pasts he was able to defeat a lifetime of selfishness to become a new man with an entirely new outlook of life. Scrooge was touched and then transformed.

I hope for you that this Christmas is filled with love. Merry Christmas!

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

There are early signs of a second stage of the Republican revolution started by Donald Trump in 2016. Looking forward essays are being written about its future that deal less with grievance and more with definition.

The revolution’s beginning pivoted on the past. Former President Trump, in pungent terms, captured frustration in a constituency that had been a crucial part of the Democrat Party calculus. This constituency—often referred to as “blue collar workers”—had been traumatized by global trade, technology disruption and social upheaval. And the only color in this constituency is the presumed color of the work shirt.

Trump was elected, grievance succeeded. Covid then exacerbated the political disharmony; oxygen was given to conspiracy theories and people who write about politics and the culture for a living gorged on controversy and provocation.

One data point that has forced open a window of deeper examination is revealed in an Axios-Ipsos poll which found that just 37% of Independents say they have confidence in the wisdom of the Party’s choices on Election Day.  And 44% of Americans, according to Gallup, identify as Independents—a formidable force.

So even though hard-core partisans frequently determine which presidential candidates emerge in the primaries, the most farsighted candidates try to remain acceptable to Independents. So what is the conservative script for this constituency?

There is no shortage of copy about conservatism and the Republican Party. And, having served in President Ronald Reagan’s administration, I’m certainly familiar with how his keepers-of-the-flame guarded it. But what was it?

In President Reagan’s days, it was tightening the fiscal valve on domestic spending, but opening it for military strength. President Reagan generally embraced free trade and certainly low taxes and minimal regulation.

In many ways, the most pronounced conservative philosophy shaped judicial nominees. Roe v Wade (decision creating a Constitutional right to an abortion) was, for a number of reasons, the epicenter of the outcry. The constant: find justices who will not reinterpret words and phrases with their own policy preferences.

Today conservatism is harder to define; plus for it to be a dynamic that voters will find compelling, it must reveal itself open to innovation and adaptation. Being against what the other side is doing is not sufficient. So, let me go upstream from the day-to-day issues.

Before and after my Washington time I was in business. Reality, discovered competitively, was informative. The constant test: does it work? Maybe that should be the new business agenda in politics.

Renewal in a technological age is only available through conceptual thinking, proof of concept actions and then the election of politicians who can reject laws, methods and appropriations that are not working. 

And if America’s future is going to be bright, conservatives must insist that Congress resume working. We have three branches of government—one is barely functioning, one is going beyond its constitutional power and the final one, the judiciary, has become the decider. The President orders, the Congress fumes and the Supreme Court decide if the order is constitutional; we might call it the power of ten. At the risk of only slight overstatement, America is a messy autocracy at the Federal level. And this is at a time when Independents believe the Parties do not serve up good candidates. 

I believe China is on a debilitating path because the societal disruption that every nation is facing cannot be dialed up or down successfully by an autocrat and his minions. What about America?

Finally, my list of questions for thinkers and politicians who self-define as conservative:

1. Where is basic education working? Why? How can the successful models be implemented in every public school?
2. Should China’s aggression in the Pacific and beyond cause the US government to reopen negotiations to join the Trans Pacific Partnership?
3. What laws, if any, are necessary to protect humanity as we know it from being re-engineered by the manipulation of genes?
4. What laws, if any, are necessary to protect privacy from a media business model underwritten by our personal information paired with artificial intelligence?
5. What does conservation of the earth’s resources mean to a conservative?
6. Is it possible to pull together our immense health care resources in a more efficient and just combination?

Okay, I get it. This is a wish list that borders on the delusional. Where, marketers ask, is the nifty slogan? What about an insistent theme? Will voters pay any attention?

We all have our lists and that is my point. Wouldn’t it be better to actually debate and then answer questions that will determine our peace and tranquility? For example, should the billions of dollars targeting climate change solutions be hidden in two enormous omnibus bills? 

And finally, what is conservative conduct? Are conservatives preternaturally cautious, modest, likely to believe that each person is a child of God? I simply ask the questions. I don’t know. 

But what I do know is that if interparty relationships are correctly characterized by the Left and Right of cable news, America is in trouble.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

This column is adapted from a recent talk at Washington College’s Institute for Religion, Politics and Culture.

Culture Leads Leaders Follow, a book I wrote, was published in 2015. This is an excerpt from the Foreword written by Chelsea Horvath who was then a Trinity Forum Academy Fellow.

“Culture Leads, Leaders Follow is an edgy and pointed assessment that critically addresses free markets, media, technology, faith in the Public Square, and fatherhood.” She goes on to say the book is, “for today’s young leaders who are attempting to creatively navigate the legacy of a convoluted culture left by previous generations, despite the temptation to submit to its unchallenged flow.” 

But, and this is my coda to Chelsea’s comments, it is a book about culture and leadership and in particular the force fields of both. I am reminded of Peter Drucker, the leadership guru of my generation’s quip: “Culture eats strategy for lunch.”

Over and over journalists, columnists, talk show hosts, even academics begin some expression with a sigh of relief: “I am certainly glad that I don’t have to raise my children in today’s world.”

The overarching question is how today’s world became what it is. Who pushed the buttons or maneuvered the levers? Was it political figures? The Church? Educators? Courts? I can make a case that each one played some role and often an unfortunate one.

In my lifetime I have seen dramatic swings. Sunday has been taken over by sports. Tobacco was once cool; now it is not. When the push began for same-sex marriage then US Senate candidate Barack Obama said, “Marriage is between a man and a woman.” 

Or what about the swing in civility? Societal cleavages are deep; unity is really hard. As “critical race theory” deepens conflicts, recall the words of Martin Luther King Jr. from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial: “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”  

But let me do a hard pivot to Washington College’s Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture. I am especially intrigued about the intersection of the sectarian and secular. And am particularly saddened by the diminished cultural influence of the sectarian.

Church and State are, wisely, separated but what about church and culture? When, for example, was the last time Proverbs was cited in articles about morality or ethics? Or for that matter any biblical verse. My guess: it was in a sectarian publication. 

Turning to politics the most abrupt and vivid lesson for me on the ways of power politics came from then Secretary of Commerce, in the Reagan administration, Malcolm Baldrige. The White House wanted to nominate me to head the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the Commerce Department but the nomination would only go forward with Secretary Baldrige’s approval.

As I entered the Secretary’s office on a cold December day in 1986 I quickly took in the elegant setting complete with a fire in the fireplace. Baldrige motioned for me to sit in a chair opposite his desk. There was a large horse saddle to his left. Baldrige was still at age 64 competing in rodeos.

After a quick “hello” Baldrige said and I quote, “Al, Washington is a god-damned tough town. Everybody is after a piece of your ass. How do you rate yourself for aggressiveness?”

Politics at the highest level should not be understood as an invitation. The ambition of politicians is to hold power and not lose it. Does that sound like Caesar? 

Sure, there are political or judicial moves that disappoint or even inflame the faithful. They should be considered when we play our role as citizens in a democracy. But, the faithful have a larger role to play and the Gospel, in my tradition, writes the script. If it doesn’t what does?

In 1954, while still working on his dissertation, Martin Luther King Jr. became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. King was only 25 years old.

In December of 1955, he became the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott to end segregated public transit. He acted locally and became the leader of the most important cultural and then legal changes in my lifetime. The only way the faithful succeed is by changing the culture and the best place to start is where you live. Power politics is not only not biblical it often entangles the most well-intentioned. 

David French, who is an evangelical Christian, author and commentator recently wrote: 

“Why do I so often repeat verses like Micah 6:8 (“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”)? Or Luke 6:28 (“bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you”)? French explains his citations: “I know there’s a very good chance that someone reading my work is hearing those verses and concepts for the very first time in their lives, even if they identify as Christian.” He was commenting about polling data that show a significant percentage of people identify as evangelical but do not attend church.

French goes on to say: “The transformation of white Evangelicalism into a primarily political movement is a cause for deep and profound concern.” As Baldrige noted, “everybody is after a piece of your ass.”

If Christians reshape the culture in significant ways it will start, and I hope has started, in communities across the nation. King’s movement started in Montgomery, Alabama where he was a pastor; his leadership reshaped the national culture.

Relatedly, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was founded in 1980, by Candace Lightner after her 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was killed by a drunk driver. According to Wikipedia there is at least one MADD office in every state of the United States and at least one in each province of Canada. Statistics show an approximate 50% reduction in drunk driving deaths since the founding of MADD and the enactment of more punitive penalties.  

I could go on but will stop there. My point is simple: culture leads, leaders follow. 

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

The name Winsome took me back quite a few decades to those magic moments when my wife, Marty, was pregnant. Driving trips in particular were absorbed in discussions about naming. And this was a time, before ultrasounds, when the sex had not been revealed. This made for a more expansive exploration.

Vaguely, but somewhat vividly, I recall those conversations. We would talk about family names. We would talk about who would be thrilled and who would be deflated. We would sound out names looking for harmony, rhythm and maybe a bit of melody.

William Shakespeare in a telling exchange revealed the naming dilemma. Spoken by Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Juliet was defiant. She was not allowed to fall in love with Romeo because he is a Montague. 

What’s in a name? Nothing and everything. The newly elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia is named Winsome Sears. And she, to the cast of Virginia Senators in their ornately appointed chamber, will be called Madame President. Not bad for a woman, a Jamaican-American who grew up in the projects.

And her election has consequences. One of the most important is to introduce Virginians and beyond to the word “winsome”. I am sure I was well into my third decade before becoming familiar with its meaning: “attractive or appealing in appearance or character.” Better that we learn its meaning earlier and most importantly its import. 

Georgetown professor Michael Dyson in the aftermath of her election said of her: “There is a black mouth moving but a white idea running on the runway of the tongue of a figure who justifies and legitimizes the white supremacist practices.” He apparently hadn’t read she is also a Marine. 

I would ask Professor Dyson: when does polarization become a winning strategy? Never is the answer. Polarization is an element that in its interplay with other elements virtually always finishes out of the money. Polarizing as a tactic can win short-term victories but in the long-term, in a democracy, action turns on some level of unification. Dyson, of course, is not running for anything; Sears did and was elected in a State not especially welcoming to Republicans in recent years. 

The hardened polarizers on the Left demean the Lieutenant-Governor-Elect while on the Right those Republican in the Congress who came to an acceptable understanding on a compromise bill funding infrastructure investments are said to be turncoats. Unity as treason?

Most people do not like polarization—the “us against them” of the human condition. When people are intensely inflexible in their point of view they want to let you know and before long you don’t want to hear more.

Former President Trump was, in my lifetime, the most polarizing figure in politics. He is the most polarizing not because he is wrong but because he insists that everybody who doesn’t share his view is wrong. And he often does so by insulting them. His loss resulted from transgressive behavior; the behavior and numbers do not lie. 

There is also a false narrative that I have certainly heard more than once. When I am with somebody who supported Trump and often still does it will be said that I helped to elect Biden. Recently I responded to this by saying “I did not vote for either”. I was then told that there are only two choices and you must choose between the offerings of the dominant Parties. One of the prevailing principles in a democracy is you get to choose, I did.

I have no idea why Winsome’s parents choose her name. But my own experience tells me it was a considered decision. Maybe it was because they understood that winsome approaches to life’s many challenges are more likely to succeed. They couldn’t have known that their daughter would one day campaign for the second highest office in Virginia, but as immigrants, they did know that their lives and America’s promise, “out of many one” would be better served by harmony not division. All Americans should take note.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

The case against Glenn Youngkin, the Governor-Elect of Virginia: he didn’t denounce Trump. The case for: he didn’t denounce Trump. I would make the latter case. Perhaps a strange position for me; I certainly didn’t support Donald J Trump.

Candidates for the future have to get to the future. Republican candidates who denounce Trump, for the predictable future, will be footnotes. Trump’s populist edge still cuts.

Youngkin is the kind of candidate that can help rebuild the Republican Party, a personality cult Party is weak. His Wikipedia profile does not start with election to some political office. And, he has not, as have so many Republican office holders, felt a need to lavish praise on Trump. While not denouncing him, he kept him at arm’s length.

And unlike former Governor Terry McAuliffe he campaigned on Virginia issues. McAuliffe, forgetting that the Republican Party is the conservative one, not simply the one former Democrat Trump affixed his name to, condescended. He essentially told Virginians that you should trust me because the other guy is in Trump’s pocket.

In my experience most races for Governor turn on state not national issues. McAuliffe, failing to nationalize the campaign lost. Virginians, like Marylanders when they turned to Republican Larry Hogan, will get a more representative government. States that are dominated by a single Party get less and less representative government. Hoorah for two-party governance.

Glenn Youngkin succeeded in business and his first outing as a candidate was a good one. Now, can he be a successful Governor? Given his meteoric beginning, if he is successful his appeal will be nationalized. Best, however, that his focus stay at home.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.