Terry Newell is currently director of his own firm, Leadership for a Responsible Society. His work focuses on values-based leadership, ethics, and decision making. A former Air Force officer, Terry also previously served as Director of the Horace Mann Learning Center, the training arm of the U.S. Department of Education, and as Dean of Faculty at the Federal Executive Institute. Terry is co-editor and author of The Trusted Leader: Building the Relationships That Make Government Work (CQ Press, 2011). He also wrote Statesmanship, Character and Leadership in America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and To Serve with Honor: Doing the Right Thing in Government (Loftlands Press 2015).
All in Governing Ourselves
Our ability to deliberate about core public issues we face is compromised by poor understanding about our Constitution and history. Too many of us cannot pass a test of basic civic literacy.
When most Americans look at government, they see only a negative picture shaped by those with axes to grind. To many, the government shutdown is thus no big deal. What they see is, sadly, a glass half-empty.
Americans yearn for moral leadership. Without it, we will fail to achieve the promises we made in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The pardon power was designed to protect those wrongly convicted and contribute to healing the nation in times of turmoil. It belongs to the president alone, but how do we decide if it is properly used?
Congress does the nation a disservice when it fails to faithfully execute its constitutional role. Presidents go too far when Congress does not go far enough. Fixing the latter is the best way to constrain the former.
During Hurricane Harvey, the federal government stood by our side. That's worth remembering the next time a politician, pundit, blogger, or even our neighbor invites us to act as if the "feds" are a nuisance at best and the enemy at worst.
Impeachment may be exciting, and for some emotionally gratifying. But we should harbor no illusions. It would be the biggest - and longest - of national distractions from the work the government needs to do.
The danger is that, over time, deviant behavior by a president becomes accepted as normal - and perhaps for future presidents as well. While President Trump’s supporters hardly seem concerned, how they would feel about such behavior by a president who is a Democrat?
Perhaps a way forward in our ideologically-frozen society is to find something more important than partisanship. Two candidates: finding jobs for those who will lose them to technology and restoring America's infrastructure to world-class standards.
Perfect institutions cannot be expected from inherently imperfect people. But our major, national institutions can be better. Strengthening them must begin with action to restore the primacy of moral values and ethical behavior in institutional life.
Delegitimizing American institutions appears to be a conscious strategy of the Trump campaign.
Questions about how candidates understand the Constitution are almost never asked. No one gets to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs without understanding the oath of office and the history of subordinating military to civilian authority, yet one can become Commander in Chief without even reading the Constitution.
Politicization hardens the societal arteries. Politics has its place, but when it warps our thinking and institutions, it risks the healthy society which is its sole purpose.
While it’s important, of course, what if we put aside the argument about what's causing global warming? Might it help liberals and conservatives seek agreement on at least some principles to guide us in dealing with our warming earth?
We need to focus more on the good government does. When we play "gotcha," we forget that we depend on our government to protect our present and foster our future. It is also the image we send around the world about the promise of republican government.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has grown virally but needs to move from the streets to the halls of legislatures, and there are thus far not enough signs of that happening.
In many other cases, the world is blurry before it comes into focus. By giving our opinion too soon, we harden our thinking and hearts when we would be better served by pausing to learn more.
The Founders worried about majority tyranny. Representative government was their solution. But much has changed since 1787. Today, we need to worry about the danger of minority tyranny as well.
Why, Americans ask, can’t government be run more like a private sector company? To road-test this idea, let’s think about one of the best run, most admired private sector companies in America: Google.
Proposals to change the way we elect a president abound. We need a yardstick to measure their value to democracy. That yardstick ought to include whether a change strengthens or diminishes majority rule and trust in government.
