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
People anchor political arguments in “public opinion.” Yet public opinion is often manufactured by those with a political axe to grind. Citizens must think for themselves and be wary of following “public opinion.”
The American experiment in self-government is based on the power of reason to restrain dangerous passions. The attack on the U.S. Capitol is a troubling sign that that restraint is failing.
Incoming President Biden faces the herculean task of restoring Americans’ trust in each other, our major institutions and our national government.
When politics weakens public institutions, it weakens the nation.
The inequities in the impact of COVID 19 question the moral commitment of the nation. We must fix them now and prevent them in future pandemics.
When the Supreme Court and lower courts are seen as a third political branch of government, their moral authority and respect for the Constitution suffer.
The 2020 presidential election will test our fidelity to the Constitution and its expectation of a peaceful transition of power.
Billions are spent on candidate ads, most of which are negative. They impact the vote almost negligibly but they may well hurt society.
Fact-based science and health care have saved countless lives during COVID-19, but they have not always been appreciated or robustly applied.
Conspiracy theories are prevalent - and dangerous - in America.. It’s important to understand what drives them.
Americans’ faith in elections, the belief the next president will be a legitimate choice of the people, and that government can be trusted to manage the peaceful transition of power must not be corrupted.
Unless we want to continually be surprised by crises, we need to institutionalize imaginative thinking and create incentives to prevent and prepare for disasters.
Tens of millions of Americans are in poverty, and millions more are one medical crisis or job loss away. We can - and must - do better.
Experiencing positive awe enriches lives, but threat-induced awe generates fear and powerlessness. We are not helpless in producing more of one and less of the other.
Stories can spread like a virus. When they do, they can complicate our ability to think clearly.
Acting as if we can either save the economy or save lives is a false ethical choice. We can do both. What we may lack is the will.
We must act now to ensure that a national election in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic is fair, free, full, and viewed as legitimate.
The current pandemic highlights a threat to our democracy: the ways we have to replace the loss of key leaders are legally insufficient and could well lead to social upheaval.
Presidential judgment requires foresight, reason and prudence, especially when confronting a pandemic.
Candidates who promise to much and ask too little of us warp the political process and the American character.
