Five years out of law school I went to work for the newly elected Missouri Attorney General. He was distinctive. He had two graduate degrees from Yale; one in law and the other in divinity. He baptized and married our youngest daughter, Marcia. His name: John C. Danforth or Jack to friends or St. Jack to his critics.

My appreciation for that beginning has been underscored by today’s political mess and I am talking about more than former President Donald Trump’s actions preceding and following the January 6th attack on Democracy. 

Words and phrases about the politics of kingdoms and tribes were first written on tablets; later printing technology and democracy widened the field. Now, writing a book about humble beginnings and self-catapulting success accompanies all national ambitions. 

My life, as told by the political aspirant, introduces the ambitious to careful editing and ultimately to a pattern of robotic answers when questioned. Spinmeisters abound. Never in a democracy has candor been in such short supply. Let’s see, “should I support a candidate who won’t really tell me what he is thinking?”

____________

Senator John McCain had been raised by an Admiral, told what to do by the Naval hierarchy at Annapolis and later by his captors in North Vietnam and still later by his political handlers. In part Senator McCain who was the Republican nominee for President in 2008 remained interesting because he didn’t take instruction. John McCain unplugged was a moral man because he meant what he said and was prepared to be judged by both his words and actions. He refused to hide.

And while I am on “unplugged” it is easy to imagine hundreds of intensely argued moments in the political life of Donald J. Trump. I am sure he must bristle at instruction, convinced he knows best. Yet, his originality in politics served him well, until it didn’t. 

One of my later in life political lessons occurred in the aftermath of Trump calling McCain a loser. I was certain his characterization was a fatal error. What I failed to understand was the lure of Trump Unplugged. 

Politicians and their enablers have lowered the standards; they are mostly scripted, although Hollywood doesn’t come calling. Years ago, I was on the set of the TV comedy Cheers. During a break in the filming Ted Danson quipped: “you people in Washington are just like us, we are all actors.” Well maybe, but the Washington version of acting is a façade to cover evasion and avoidance. Actors are a stories characters while most politicians are the real-life characters in what is often a bad script. 

Morality in politics? We were given a vivid standard by a Republican Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, Rusty Bowers. He made a notation in his diary after Trump and Rudy Giuliani teamed up to declare there was fraud in the Arizona election that Trump lost and insisted that he should refuse to certify the results. Rusty Bowers wrote:

In a Democracy Bowers’ words and actions writ large are all the protection we have. We get the morality we deserve. Perhaps there was a time when standards of morality were set at the top. They certainly were when I worked for Attorney General Danforth. More often today they are set at the bottom—the foundation. Politicians are free to say what they want; we should pay attention to what they do. If we can’t get it right, corruption will be our legacy.

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. 

 

Autocrats frequently serve up lies—after all lying can be a useful tactic. Once in the seat of power they can get away with it because they control the levers of government—most importantly the media, national police and military. And importantly they use those levers to either entice or threaten a large segment of the population. Fealty is what they want.

America doesn’t work that way and among other foreign enemies we do not like an assortment of autocrats starting with Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un of North Korea, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and certainly the Ayatollahs of Iran.

But the January 6th Committee’s initial report demonstrates a democratic soft spot. Primarily, that Presidential power fused with a hardcore base is a very effective weapon. The base allows itself to be used as a high value political chip in multi-candidate primaries.

The reality of politics today is at best disheartening. Peggy Noonan, writing in the Wall Street Journal, used city politics to describe the base on the Left: “Progressive politicians have been around long enough running cities that some distinguishing characteristics can be noted. One is they don’t listen to anybody. To stop them you have to fire them. They’re not like normal politicians who have some give, who tack this way and that. Progressive politicians have no doubt, no self-correcting mechanism.” My take: they tend to be all theory and no practice.

On the Right climate change is just unwelcome noise and gun deaths are secondary to an 18th Century constitutional provision about forming a militia to fight foreign enemies. And both sides pay little attention to balancing budgets.

But let me come back to the January 6th Committee report. I will agree with Republicans that the Committee should be more bi-partisan. But since the Minority Leader in the House is subservient to Trump, not the Constitution, it is hard to anticipate a truly investigative approach with Kevin McCarthy’s designees. And certainly, the runup to the January 6th assault on the Capitol demands investigation. This, to me, is not a partisan imperative, it is a truth imperative.

As I have noted before, I have friends across the political spectrum. On the Left there is a view that the Republican Party should be way off in a ditch given that many continue to support Trump. Voters in the Center of the political spectrum move back and forth between Parties based on outcomes, not ideology. Roaring inflation, well let’s vote for the other Party. As long as we have a two-Party system that is the way it will work. Plus, there are characteristics of President Biden’s leadership that a majority of the public does not like—note the polls.

The initial January 6 Committee report was chilling. I didn’t learn a lot, but the work of its investigative staff and interview excerpts of Trump’s family and Attorney General opened a wider lens. What I found particularly problematic was Trump’s assumptions. I found myself more than once wondering what world he had been occupying for four years and what he had learned.

America’s strength is in its Constitution. The Constitution is clear: concentrated power that could lead to autocracy must be avoided. Yet Trump took on the Founder’s distribution of powers with a rag-tag army of several hundred and supporters who got caught up in mob psychology. I guess, since on the 6th  he was the Commander-in-Chief, he assumed this outfit could defeat the Capitol police since he did not plan to activate either the National Guard or the active military. Then what?

And he must have assumed notwithstanding his Vice-President Mike Pence’s pledge to do his Constitutional duty that he could bully him into cancelling the election results. 

I could go on, but these two Grand Canyon leaps of faith reveal a President emotionally and operationally unhinged. Biden is criticized for showing cognitive decline; Trump showed cognitive collapse.

The next two years will continue to be hyper-partisan. Hopefully 2024 will produce a President who is a real leader and has majority support. But the one thing I am sure of, the 2024 election will move beyond Biden and Trump. 

Finally, a shout out to the courageous Republican Representative Liz Cheney. She put her personal safety and career on the line. I close with her words about Republican colleagues in the Congress whose subservience is to Trump and not the Constitution: “Tonight, I say this to our Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

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. 

 

Many great political thinkers through the centuries in various cultures have recognized that if man is to really understand his personal relationship to others he must have an allegiance beyond ego. We are all born with ego; some of us control it and others don’t, depending on our priorities, values, and commitments. I do not believe that this nation or any other can sever its roots from what I call “things of the spirit” and remain strong.

          – Mark O. Hatfield, Former Republican Governor and U.S. Senator, Oregon.

Mark Hatfield’s prominence was two generations ago, but several days ago I reflected back as I read this exchange:

Kristen Soltis Anderson:

“Americans are less likely to have a lot of close friends these days. And their friend groups are likely to be made up of mostly those who agree with them on politics.”

David French: “This is one of the most fundamental and important challenges of our time. There are a lot of cultural wounds that deep friendship can heal.”

Anderson is a pollster and commentator and French, an Iraq war veteran, Senior editor of The Dispatch.

In 2022 we are a legalistic society. Polls are conducted to gauge our attitudes and intentions about people whose principal job is to make laws. So here we are once again debating about which gun laws are needed to reduce mass shootings. While I understand the necessity of what we are doing, I am pessimistic. We should be more alarmed by the culture and less expectant about the efficacy of laws and associated bureaucracies.

In my youth I now realize that I was brainwashed. “Under God” was a part of my almost daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. And there was a Boy Scout pledge. Plus, on most Sundays I started the day going to Sunday School until, if I recall, sometime in my teens. This was a national, not regional, pattern. The core message: strive to lead a virtuous life.

Virtues today are often defined by grievance—you do not respect me, we need to use the law to make sure you do. In a more spiritual culture grievances would be many fewer. The spiritual dimension would caution the ego. When the ego is unmoored watch out.

Today, society’s pulse is often measured by polls. Do you favor the President? Which political party are you most likely to support? Which candidate? Which position on this or that policy? And, on and on.

I wonder how the public would respond to a poll on spiritual attitudes. Would taking our spiritual pulse remind us of its importance? Could we sweep in houses of worship in such a way that persons of the cloth might sense a deeper calling?

So here are some questions. Do you encounter a force in your life that you would define as spiritual? If so, what effect, if any, does it have in your relationships? Actions?

Perhaps trying to identify cause and effect the pollster might probe further. Do you do anything to nurture your spiritual side? What has the most influence? Do you make use of what is called social media to connect spiritually? Is a house of worship important in your spiritual life?

Now this line of questioning is going to make the naysayers very uncomfortable. Those who only believe in the material, what you can feel and touch or prove scientifically, well they are not going to like the suggestion that there is an important dimension they can’t see under a microscope.

Most of us grew up when standing and singing The Star-Spangled Banner was not questioned. Most of us grew up when those responding to a spiritual calling and wearing a clerical collar were not suspect. Indeed, the breaking of vows has assaulted the spiritual. Preachers becoming politicians in the pulpit or sexual predators in their lives have done immeasurable harm to the spiritual. When those who should be examples turn out to be the opposite, faith is assaulted. Ego unmoored.

It is also crucial that we understand the many faces of spiritual influence. In the United States we are more likely to be in touch with the insistence in Judaism and Christianity, but “love thy neighbor” is universal. Take a look at Hinduism or Islam or Buddhism or others.

And we should also understand that “hate” and its animation is not a local but is a global problem. This is an excerpt from the Toronto Star on hate in Canada: “A growing list of convicted or accused killers have been steeped in an online ecosystem of hate that is transcending national borders, eluding law enforcement and inciting a brand of terrorism experts say is spreading and mutating.”

Regardless of the existence or not of the spiritual, we should not kid ourselves into thinking that there is some mix of laws that will rescue our society from violent death. We will try to find the mix; and should. But if we really want to make long-lasting progress, we should work on the foundation of humanity—a true counter-revolution.

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 best theater captures our imagination, taking us to a different place. I can imagine 1608 on the Chesapeake Bay, our stage, because Captain John Smith wrote about it: “Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitations.” So, let’s take a quick look at how we are doing on our stage. The Chesapeake Bay is water, so let’s start there.

ShoreRivers measures water quality and issues reports. The report, as of May 26, 2022, is encouraging. Outside the Choptank River there was only one failing grade and that was Worton Creek on the Sassafras River. Essentially the report says it is safe to swim at 31 locations and only unsafe at eight. Seven of the eight are on the Choptank including Trappe Landing and Sail Winds Park, a stone’s throw from Lakeside, the controversial Trappe land development.

Anybody who has been following the public hearings and procedural steps on Lakeside’s intended development of 2,500 homes, which includes a commercial center, is familiar with waste from La Trappe Creek polluting the Choptank. Swimmers, “stay out”. But what about fishing? I have talked to more than one Waterman who has cursed the decline in water quality and its attack on keystone species.

What is particularly cynical is the development of land in water adjacent habitat without proper environmental safeguards. This is not a development on the plains of Western Kansas. The message: “come and live on the Chesapeake Bay but don’t worry about what we do to it.”

Now, stepping back, let me be clear about my own perspective. Additional housing is a good thing for people who live and work in Talbot and surrounding Counties. Goodness knows housing prices are high, reflecting supply limitations.

But a housing development that assaults the character of our County and is misaligned with the highest standards of treated waste we ask the Bay to absorb is a bridge too far. And we should keep in mind that approximately $15 billion has been spent in cleaning up the Bay. Shouldn’t land development projects have to proceed without reversing what our tax dollars and contributions have accomplished?

I write hoping, more than expecting. A glimmer of hope follows a lawsuit filed several days ago by citizens of Talbot County. The lawsuit raises a simple question. Does the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) have the authority to ignore the Talbot County Planning and Zoning Commission? In a sense, can it allow discharge permits for homes at Lakeside to an inferior treatment plant in Trappe?  The law, most simply interpreted, gives the Talbot County Planning and Zoning Commission the right to set the qualifications in its comprehensive plan for such permits.

The Commission on November 3, 2021 said the discharge permit should not be granted. Then on a 3 to 2 vote the Talbot County Council turned on its Commissioners, failing to affirm its decision as did the MDE. What is going on?

Now, to state the glaringly obvious, I am not the first person to write on this subject. Nor do I walk in the shoes of the Plaintiffs, many of whom live in Trappe or close by. But what I do know as a voter in Talbot County, there is not a chance I would vote for anybody who makes the health of the Bay and its tributaries secondary to land development. Harmony between land use and the Bay is essential.

I believe there is a way forward regardless of what the Courts do. But I am not optimistic. The Talbot County Council is led by President Chuck Callahan. He should have worked harder to find solutions that brought all the interested parties to a resolution that could be submitted for approval by the Planning Commission and the County Council. Resolution of difficult issues often take weeks or months and many meetings. Leadership can be a burden, but President Callahan you asked for the job.

Lakeside news will continue to happen; lawsuits are the offspring of disharmony which is the source of most news. It would be nice to get some hopeful reports—ones recognizing the importance of the essential element, water.

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. 

Thoughts of childhood took me back. I walked to school; about five blocks. It was called Bailey Elementary School. Mom and Dad said goodbye as I started out without fearing it would be the last time. My greatest fear: I wouldn’t measure up as we played soccer during recess.

Marty and I, as parents, had similar experiences as did our daughters, I think. While it is impossible to measure an absence of fear on a quantitative scale; well, it was blissful.

So, what has changed? Just about everything. Society is coarser. Measuring up, in a world of “social media” is, for some, terrorizing. And it just takes a few turning an interior terror into an exterior one to change everything.

Guns? I remember my Dad deputizing me, after a gift of a Red Ryder B-B gun. His charge; keep the squirrels out of our pecan tree. Talk about an existential challenge.

So here we are a century turn later enjoying medical miracles but fearing life. So, we ask after each mass shooting what are we (after all we live in a democracy) going to do. We then go through a nauseous week or so depending on the severity of the slaughter and fall back into our rhetorical stand offs. Pathetic.

I was at the birth of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). I worked in New York City and could see smoke rising from the World Trade Center towers. The attack occurred on September 11, 2001. The TSA was established by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 19, 2001. 

I suspect Bush and his Congressional collaborators don’t list TSA among their proudest moments. They should; after all our government absorbed the horror, vowed to never let it happen again and almost a generation later it hasn’t. Along the way plane hijackings went from 67 incidents in the 1970s to 9 incidents in the 2010s and none involved United States airlines. 

I can sense the bile gathering in our collective throats. None of us want to stand in line at airports or be electronically disrobed as we clear the security area. Or, spend billions of tax dollars just to make sure we don’t die flying to see our family hundreds or thousands of miles away. But then 9/11 demanded action and we intuitively knew that we could not effect a cultural change that would erase the threat.

We have once again been reminded of children who will not see tomorrow and parents who unknowingly said their final goodbye. And, if we have taken a few minutes to reflect we have been reminded of freedom of speech converted into stories that seize on anger, guns and revenge. It used to be we just watched these storylines unfold; now video games allow us to get in the middle of the action. And among us are troubled minds.

Okay, I am running out of words—columns have limits. And, our patience has limits. The shooting at the Uvalde school takes third place behind Virginia Tech and then Sandy Hook in lives lost and exists in a long line of school horrors (367 in the 2000s). We should be at an inflection point. And we know that the only constructive actions in our divided nation is for the two political parties to find acceptable common ground.

On one level, prediction is easy. We won’t ban guns. Maybe the age of acquisition will be extended. We should, but are unlikely to, restrict the sale of high-capacity magazines. And on and on. 

What about “tactical carrier” vests—I cannot imagine a successful law that does not severely restrict their ownership. The vests are what we think of as bullet proof and have pockets for other guns and ammunition. The Constitution does not protect them. When Salvador Ramos, the shooter, at age 18, bought such a vest, a screaming siren should have sounded.

Finally, nothing happens without leadership and President Biden is in the leadership chair. And, I should add citizen leadership will be important; not political, citizen. 

The immediate reactions from elected officials were not encouraging. They never are. They have their talking points; there was no need to rehearse them. But, ever the optimist, I know there are patriots in both parties. President Biden, you know who they are, call them up and lead us to a better tomorrow. Don’t seek perfection, seek something you can sign. We won’t return to the blissful moments I recalled, but we can make schools and public places safer.

Afterword: News now suggests that serious discussions have been started in the US Senate to craft legislation to reduce the threat of gun violence in schools. A seed crystal? We can hope.

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. 

Vladimir Putin has two things on his side: sheer numbers and, potentially, isolationists in the West (America and its Allies).

As I write, Putin seems to be in “command and control” in Russia. Plus, Russia’s sheer numbers and armaments, along with a nuclear backdrop, are feared by politicians in some Western capitals. Of course, most Western leaders thought Russia would walk over Ukraine months ago. They should scrub their intelligence agencies while rebooting their mind.

Ukraine, the Nation, was transformed by Vladimir Putin. His “command and control” didn’t work out as he expected. Ukraine fought as a Nation; Russia showed up as an army and not a very good one. Three months later Ukraine has endured while Russia’s military assets have been exposed and depleted. Its victories achieved by long range artillery aimed at annihilation.  

Importantly, Ukraine courage and endurance has transformed the West. The leaders of the free world were initially outraged by Putin’s mendacity, while skeptically monitoring Ukraine’s capacity and resolve. So, transformation is not too big a word. We know, for example, how divided we are in the United States, yet in recent weeks the two most powerful Congressional leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell have led delegations to Kyiv to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky and pledge their support.

We also know that the Western Alliance, following the Afghanistan withdrawal, looked weak. President Xi of China was certainly paying attention and is presumably collecting valuable pricing information from the Ukraine war. How much might he be ready to spend on Taiwan? 

But, on the eve of the fourth month of the Ukraine war a figurehead of a bent conservatism has become a symbol of fecklessness. Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, is once again attaching himself to a parade of fools.

Hawley, last week, objected to the legislative package for Ukraine just approved by Congress. Hawley might want to recall the lyrics of a tune popularized by Kenny Rogers and that C&W fans and beyond know as “The Gambler.”

Rogers sang of “a train bound for nowhere” on a dark summer evening. Boredom overtook the gambler as he turned to his companion singing: “ Son I’ve made a life of reading faces, Knowing what the cards were by the way they held their eyes; So if you don’t mind my sayin I can see you are out of aces.” The Gambler willing to trade advice for whiskey and a cigarette continued: “If you’re gonna play the game, boy you gotta learn to play it right, You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, Know when to fold’em, Know when to walk away And know when to run.”

Are America and its allies on a “train to nowhere”? The Ukrainians have made their bet with their lives—the ultimate sacrifice. Their resolve has been inspiring and Russia is learning a crucial lesson—in war fight an army, not a nation and certainly not on their soil.

If anybody is on a train to nowhere, it is Putin and sadly Hawley and the isolationists. Putin’s story about going to Ukraine to fight Nazis is eroding, even in Russia, as the real story unfolds on electronic networks that can’t be controlled.

It is also hard to lead effectively if your mind is blurred by self-intoxication surrounded by a team soaked in paranoia. Paranoia is depleting as the circle of trust gets progressively smaller and talented people either exit or take matters into their own hands.

So, Senator Hawley how are you as a betting man? As you raised your fist to show solidarity with the January 6th insurrectionists you revealed opportunism, the mendacious variety. 

And this time, as former President Ronald Reagan said to his critics, “there you go again.” But this time the goal is worthy and the war is real. This time it is principled. Perhaps you should listen, really listen, to “the Gambler” and your leader, Senator McConnell. 

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. 

“Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil.” Eric Hoffer, The True Believer, Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

Last week on the way to Vigeland Park in Oslo, Norway, I drove by the Nobel Peace Center. The Nobel Peace Prize came to mind. Later, as I reflected, peace in general came to mind.

Europe and America are at war against Russia in Ukraine fueled by the grievances and hatreds of Vladimir Putin. And peace at home is too often missing. Several days ago, an 18-year-old opened fire at a grocery store in Buffalo, NY killing 12 people; his motivation, racial hatred. Where did that come from? We know it was not an isolated instance.

As usual much of the talk among politicians was about gun restrictions. It always is. Nothing happens. As a practical matter, not much can happen unless the Courts re-interpret the 2nd Amendment freedom more narrowly or we amend the Constitution. Not anticipating the former I favor the latter.

A pinnacle of hope over reality in my life was when Barack Obama was selected to be honored with the Nobel Peace Prize a year into his presidency. Even many of his enthusiastic supporters wondered why.

Peace is not a political card. It should not be thrown around willy-nilly, although it is. Peace is a reality or its not and in America today too often it is not. But what we know for sure is that people who use the political playing deck without regard to the responsibility of living in a free society are toxic. Peace is essential in a free country.

American Presidents live in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln understood the necessity of being a wartime President to achieve a national peace. He accepted the challenge of reestablishing the United States while ending slavery.

Hard times followed Lincoln’s assassination; there was plenty left to do to achieve Lincoln’s dream and we know that President after President came up short—some way short. 

Today do we live in a Democracy where problems can be peacefully resolved? The conditions we now face are not promising. Tribalism. Polarization. Hateful assertions spread instantly by electronic networks. And what about freedom’s facilitator and interpreter. What happens when news coverage is eclipsed by viewpoint news?

Our Constitution says hands off speech. We are left with a puzzle. Discernment is the only way to peaceful solutions, but the problematic elements turn back on themselves. Emotion begets emotion and so often trumps logic. And when it comes to leadership the logical are infrequently good at performance. 

It is damnably hard to push beyond pre-dispositions and emotions. For politicians and voters alike. We are barraged with claims and their opposite and virtually every candidate has had a bad day telescoped as simply a bad human being.

Returning to the warnings from Eric Hoffer (President Eisenhower’s favorite philosopher) who watched the masses assemble behind Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin: “Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil.”

Donald Trump chose to cast first Barack Obama and then Hillary Clinton as devils. And then his list grew to include any person of some prominence that was critical of his words or actions. And, over time the “devils” extended to Republicans who didn’t kneel—RINOs (Republicans in name only) he called them. They too were enemies. Ronald Reagan charmed his adversaries; Donald Trump damned them with vicious language.

America’s strength is in its optimism about the future and the way we understand accomplishment. Rarely have I heard somebody who is honored not expand the recipients to “our team”. But that is not Trump’s world. Trump’s world resembles boxing—there is one person in the ring and the enablers are largely invisible. Trump as Rocky.

Peace in American political culture, Left and Right, can at any point be elusive and when it is lacking the reasons can be damnably complex. But I know this, politics and public affairs in general are the worse for Donald Trump, his tactics and acolytes. The sooner he and his legacy of bitter politics leave the scene the better. 

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. 

 

 

 

Believe me; Elon Musk should not want to own Twitter. But then hubris can be blinding. I write as a former censor.

While Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) complaints were filed against the broadcast company that syndicated Howard Stern’s morning radio show. I found two of the complaint transcripts actionable under a law to protect children from obscene content. Suddenly I became one of Stern’s morning show targets including his wishing me dead when I went into the hospital for cancer surgery. While there my wife answered hostile calls from some in his fan base.

Since I wasn’t selling anything, there was no reason to worry about spillover. Maybe I should have been, because I received more notoriety from those complaints than anything else the Commission did. If software to help parents screen out Stern’s vulgar shtick had existed, I would have eagerly sold it.  A large part of his audience was pre-pubescent males—now in their 30s and earlier 40s. 

At the time new communications technologies were coming out of the laboratories and re-shaping the FCC’s role. Liberation from the world of channel scarcity was soon to emerge and Twitter is one of the offspring. Twitter allows most everybody to post on a public network what they want to say.

Predictably, but unfortunately, some people have rabid typing disease. At times it is impulsive and hyper-emotional. At times the posts are drawn from a vocabulary that seems to start and stop with the F word. And of course, there are the predators: pornographers, criminal fraudsters, raw racists and the like—the clutter of bent minds. 

Now, I can’t go further without introducing you to the Communications Decency Act and the pivotal Section 230 which goes to the nub of censorship. Drawing from Wikipedia: 

“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

Section 230(c)(2) further provides “Good Samaritan” protection from civil liability for operators of interactive computer services in the good faith removal or moderation of third-party material they deem “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected.”

And that is why Musk doesn’t want to own Twitter. The so-called Good Samaritan provision means that the burden is on the provider (Twitter) and not the government to be the censor. Musk, of course, would be too busy to decide when words, phrases, visual images are “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent”. And, maybe he wouldn’t care.

Musk, and he would be the name on the marquee, could decide not to worry about virulently anti-social speech. Either way he would have a minute-by-minute problem because a large majority of Americans care about what is published. I learned that and to the extent it was necessary to remind me the Congress held hearings with me in the hot seat.

Elon Musk, of course, sells things on most continents. As CNBC reports, under recently passed laws: “Tech companies will be required to implement new procedures designed to take down illegal material such as hate speech, incitement to terrorism and child sexual abuse.” Welcome Mr. Musk to global restrictions.

So, as the various scenarios play out along financial lines and stockholder maneuvering, the real cost to Elon Musk who sells Tesla’s, solar panels, internet connections and much else has nothing to do with Board of Director shaped poison pills. If he owns Twitter he will become, by law, one of the world’s foremost censors. 

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 second month of the year revealed the person-of-the-year, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. I suspect most of us are astonished by the depth and dexterity of his wartime leadership.

While a father with young children, he must also be the Father of his Nation. He chose to remain on the battlefield after Russia attacked and dispatched assassination teams to take him out. He declined when Western leaders urged him to move Ukraine’s Capitol to another country. True fathers stay close.

Zelenskyy understands the importance of words and images. He restates and updates the challenge each day. He calls for courage while being courageous. His life and leadership are one. There is not a whiff of hypocrisy.

I suspect all of us have been humbled by bravery under fire—as we have watched Ukrainians wave goodbye to their families and leave for the battlefield.

The news from Ukraine draws a sharp contrast. Forty- and fifty-year-old Ukrainian leaders speak of their day-to-day challenges—they are at the top of the news. Our leaders, mostly, form a gerontocracy. President Joe Biden is 79 and the person who is said to be the leader of the Republican Party is 75. If he were reelected, he would take office at 78. Congressional leadership follows the same pattern.

America needs leaders of proven merit, not a gerontocracy—the world is evolving rapidly. America needs a political system and engaged voters who look first for leadership skills. We need expansive not contentious voices. We need to pay more attention to accomplishment than advocacy. Advocacy is relatively easy, I know, accomplishment as the leader of a nation is complicated.

The 21st Century world that unfolds each day is reshaping life—disruption is endemic. Computers, Robots and their constant companion Software are the big three. They are the fulcrum of disruption—in our families and in what we think of as ordinary affairs.

Ordinary affairs now tend to spin out of control. There was a moment—a rather long one—when political leaders appeared to be more in control. But then politics, always contentious, became combustible as noisy ideologues or worse use social media to enhance themselves while dividing others.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was elected as the head of a new political Party formed in 2017. In America we have a stratified and legally protected two-Party structure that today often rewards dogma not accomplishment.

But then there is a much bigger world beyond the political echo chambers. A look at the communications culture shows that Elon Musk is well ahead of President Biden in influence currency. On the most frequently used public messaging platform, Twitter, Musk is followed by 82.6 million people; Biden is followed by 21.3 million. Incidentally, Donald J Trump Jr. is followed by 7.5M.

Musk’s car company, Tesla, is valued at almost ten times the value of General Motors and Ford combined. He founded SpaceX; it is the launch partner with NASA. Plus, it provides a constellation of low earth orbit satellites called Starlink which provides a communications network for Ukraine after Russia bombed its infrastructure. Russia has now declared war on Starlink.

I use Musk illustratively—his wealth, reach and idiosyncratic nature—are both real and symbolic.

Unfortunately, it is hard to find political leaders equal to the challenges of a disruptive world. Public opinion polls suggest Americans have a hard time getting beyond public figures who are mostly known for being known, not for any real accomplishment. Too often today being known is insufficient; you have to stir up the Party’s “base”—attempting to lead from behind.

A Gallup poll in February of this year reported that 29% identified as Democrats, 26% as Republicans and 42% as Independents. How does a President whose enabling power derives from a majority of 29% who self-identify as Democrats serve as an expansive political leader? By leading, and in a democracy, leaders must draw strength well beyond the base in their own Party.

There is an irrepressible breakthrough on the horizon; recall Elon Musk’s Twitter followers—82.6M. Leaders with influence currency can organize an independent political campaign almost overnight. They have a base outside the highly regulated walls of protection built by the two political parties and its dogma. The path to form a new Party to run for President is an order of magnitude easier than when Ross Perot ran in 1996 and garnered 19% of the popular vote. It is too early to forecast the consequences, but as a person who recently joined the Independent column, I am pleased at the prospect.

Free markets are supported by the vast majority of Americans because buyers and sellers discipline each other. We need a much freer political market—expansive leadership is unlikely to come from either of our entrenched Parties.

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Elementary School Antics

Increasing numbers of political hacks and their camp followers are reverting to a grade school pattern of mocking disability. They, to the detriment of the United States, look for circumstances that they claim shows President Joe Biden as too feeble for the job.

I know a number of older people whose mental and physical dexterity has declined but when push comes to shove display wisdom—they have had a lot of years to accumulate it. And I am not talking about people who have dozens of skilled support staff to cut through the noise. The White House is populated by more than the first family.

History will give us an inside look at Joe Biden’s decision-making. Fortunately, historians will not waste a fraction of a second on the political hacks. Presidential processes and decisions are fair game; attack the policy, not the man.

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 are approaching the final days in the life of Jesus Christ. As thoughts crowd in, I often turn to writing to process my thoughts. 

The life and writings of Blaise Pascal, the 17th Century French mathematician, physicist and inventor, who is said to be father of the computer, have intrigued me. Pascal in writing about his faith reflected: “There is a God-created vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be satisfied by a created thing, but only by God, the creator made known through Jesus Christ.”

The phrase “made known through Jesus Christ” is both profound and controversial. Profound because Pascal, the scientist, needed history to support his heart’s need and controversial because non-Christian religions do not accept Christ as savior. Yet, Jesus Christ is often cited universally as the only perfect man—Jesus as an exemplar. And regarding gender, it should be noted that many of Jesus’s most devoted and exemplary followers were women. Humankind, not just mankind.

If Jesus can be understood as an exemplar, should we measure our own lives by his Sermon on the Mount, for example? What about neighbors; how should we treat them—writ small and large?

But just as Pascal, the scientist, needed to search for concrete proofs of the unprovable and going beyond his heart’s voice found in the history of Jesus, affirmation, let me suggest a more contemporary pathway for us. At least it helps me.

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809. His life has been researched and chronicled more than any other American. Lincoln, like us, was not perfect. Indeed, the last place most would look for perfection would be in the political class. Lincoln became a war president, first to hold the union of states, and then to end slavery. He hired Generals who deployed soldiers to kill the Confederates who took to the battlefield to preserve disunion and slavery. Perfect, no. But he was often on his knees searching for God’s direction – his heart required it.

Together with a successful war to hold the union and end slavery, he authored the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural address just weeks before he was assassinated. He ended his second inaugural address with these words: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

I believe that Lincoln found what God offers. A voice in the silence. And perhaps a muse, not any muse but a transcendent one. Too often we see God, through Jesus Christ or not, as an interventionist. As a force that will intervene in our world and make right what we believe is not right.

I also know what happens when we try to fill our heart’s vacuum through political power. Jesus in his day was often attacked because of the company he kept. The Religious authorities (politicians) were looking for an ultimate King; what the world got, what humans got, was a savior. 

Filling the vacuum in our hearts is not easy work. It requires going much deeper than most are willing to go. But for all those who have a heart whisperer—a spiritual presence—pay attention to what people do, not what they say. Lincoln lived large, but in a sense those in today’s world who love their neighbors every single day are also living large because they are listening to their hearts. Love, divine love, is present all around us.

Lincoln’s life and death gave humankind a more contemporary, indeed a historical understanding of a human who understood God not through “call and response” but through God’s presence in his heart.

Good Friday, just several days from now, is also called Great Friday, Black Friday and Holy Friday. The one thing we know for sure is that history records this coming Friday like no other one.

Abraham Lincoln’s words often cut through the noise, so let me close with his words: “When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification for membership, the Savior’s condensed statement of the substance of both law and Gospel, ‘Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and thy neighbor as thyself’ that church will I join with all my heart and all my soul.”

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.