What is good political leadership?
At this point in the election cycle, it’s pretty standard for USTomorrow to see an increase in contact from current and potential candidates seeking to serve constituents — not the political machine. Let me know what you look for in good political leadership in this two-question poll.
We’re happy to help while acknowledging they’ve chosen a difficult (and admirable) path. The last couple of cycles have delivered wild shifts in both politics and policy driven by a strategy of catering to the base. Culture warriors are winning elections and we’re worse off for it.
Many of you have suggested that a critical consideration in this equation is a lack of leadership. I certainly agree.
I consider elected representatives to be leaders in the sense that their job is to ascertain and advance the collective interests of a constituency. Gathering data, identifying opportunity, understanding (and, as necessary, evolving) local perspective, driving consensus, and, critically, reinvesting public resources in the community that elected them.
If the role of our elected leaders is to improve the lives of constituents and deliver a viable future for our kids, that implies that they are working toward real improvements at home. Better schools. Better infrastructure. Deeper and more resilient connections to each other and our planet’s changing economy and climate. In a very literal sense, the investment that each citizen makes in our country through taxes should be returned, to a degree, back to the community that provided it.
Have your tax dollars gone to work for you? Or is performance prioritized over delivery?
Is that what you’re seeing? People view the role of government in many different ways.
For instance, this morning the NYTimes released polling data that shows a potential 2024 Biden-Trump race being essentially tied. If that surprises you, I might recommend watching this recent video by traveler and journalist Peter Santenello. It’s about an hour long and is (as his website reports) a video about a world the media fails to capture. He travels through Appalachia for some very interesting interviews with relatively little spin.
In the past, elected leaders were judged on their ability to deliver substantive improvements to their constituents while advancing US interests at home and abroad. Some enter the arena with these skills, some gain them over years of service.
The current trend toward culture over delivery, toward theatrics over governance, might lie at the core of the question: What is a leader?
The bright side to our current political landscape is that people are paying attention. And, although I remember when our politics were a little more boring and largely confined to C-SPAN, a more engaged, if more outraged, electorate might help restore some balance.
I’d love to hear your impressions of the delivery of real services and return of your investment — not political theater — by the leaders elected by your community. Respond directly to me or comment in our poll.
Let me know what you’re seeing out there.
As always, if you find this newsletter helpful, please forward to others and encourage them to sign up and send in their feedback as well.
Take care,
Joseph
Joseph Kopser
Co-Founder of USTomorrow.us
